What's the Lure of the Dark Side?
by morganna12
Summary: A fight with her friends leaves Hermione fleeing to Knockturn Alley, where books of the Dark Arts fuels her search for Voldemort. When a Death Eater hears about her, she's thrown into a world of Dark Arts, Death Eaters and secrecy. formerly CrazyWriter330
1. Time Bomb

Chapter One

"HERMIONE I'VE TOLD YOU BEFORE," Harry yelled, in a frustrated tone he always seem to use when speaking with Hermione.

"THEN TELL ME AGAIN, HARRY, BECAUSE I'VE SEEMED TO HAVE FORGOTTEN!" yelled Hermione, her eyes narrowed. She was practically emitting anger, not unusual since she had gotten the news.

"YOU ARE STRICTLY TO _RESEARCH_! TO RESEARCH! YOU DON'T GO ON MISSIONS, YOU DON'T MAKE THE PLANS, THAT'S _IT_!"

"I DON'T WANT TO JUST RESEARCH, _HARRY_! I WANT TO ACTUALLY BE APART OF THE ORDER!"

"YOU _ARE_! Just…not in the sense of missions." Harry argued, looking at Ron and Ginny for backup.

"Hermione," said Ron, "HERMIONE!"

"WHAT?" she screeched, turning toward Ron.

"Harry's right. You just aren't cut out for battles and—" Ron started, but was interrupted by Ginny.

"Hey, it's not your fault you're better at researching than carrying out actual—"

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" yelled Hermione, "Merlin, Harry. You even let _Ginny_ go on missions! But I'm not even going to ask why. I already know the answer. I'm sorry, Hermione," she mimicked, "Ginny can go on missions because I'm sleeping with her." With an angry sigh, Hermione stomped from the living room up to the bedroom she shared with Ginny.

It was five years after the trio's seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and so far the Order was doing pretty good on defeating the Death Eaters in raids and battles. Hermione, as could already be told, was stuck with the research. She had been given the assignment to research anything she could about defense spells and various whereabouts of Voldemort. Harry had become the leader of the Order after Dumbledore's death, and Ron was his second in command. _Ron,_ Hermione scoffed, _a second in command_. _He couldn't kill anyone_. It was true. As they had learned in their fourth year Defense Against the Dark Arts class, you had to not only say Avada Kedavra, but you have to have powerful magic behind it. Let's just say Ron hadn't quite mastered the 'powerful magic' bit. Hermione, though, was smart, sly and quick enough to be apart of the raids and such but _they wouldn't let her_. And she _didn't_ know why. Hermione did not like not knowing something. They were hiding something from her, she could tell, and that's why they were keeping her from the missions.

The 22-year-old Hermione Granger had changed little from her Hogwarts years. She still had bushy hair, still read all the time, and still scolded Ron and Harry about learning more. But instead of simply ignoring her reading pleas, they blew up at her.

The funny this is, since a few weeks ago, they hadn't been talking to her at all. They regarded her like she was a time bomb and could explode any second. This was how Hermione figured they were hiding something.

Completely spitting with angry energy, Hermione rushed into the Order's library. This was the only place she had peace from all of her friends' yelling. _Ha, great friends they are. Always Harry this, Harry that. I swear, it's as if he's the only one in the world! And Harry himself is worse! Always strutting about, ordering people around, probably thinking along the lines of, I'm the chosen one, I shouldn't be doing anything but the most important job out there_.

After hours in the library, though she had done more thinking than reading, Hermione exited. Something had dawned on her. _No one_ here cared about her. They needed her book smarts, but all they cared about was the safety of Harry. That's it. If she were to die tomorrow, all they'd mourn about was the loss of important information always on hand. She had tried to remove the resenting thoughts from her mind, but the more she had thought about it, the more she realized that what she was thinking...what true.

As she entered the dining room, she saw what she always saw this time of night. Ron talking to Harry and Ginny, the only open seat next to Lupin, who was too busy talking with Tonks to realize she was being ignored. Then she saw the food being served, and noticed something. Harry's helping was about _double_ of everyone else's. _Typical Mrs. Weasley_, thought Hermione, bitterly, looking at her own small meal. Everyone at the table had more food than herself. _This is just pathetic_, Hermione thought, listening to what Harry was saying,

"So we're planning a raid on the abandoned manor we think they've taking residence in. Ron, Ginny, I want you two to get a list together of everyone going. Lupin, Tonks, get more information on who would be at the manor. Mr. Weasley, Bill—"

"What about me, then?" interrupted Hermione, her arms folded across her chest.

"Now, now Hermione. You don't need to interrupt Harry in the middle of when he's talking," scolded Mr. Weasley, before gulping down his butterbeer.

"Right," Ron stated, looking at Hermione with narrowed eyes, "as you were saying, Harry?"

"Thank you, Ron," said Harry, "and if you must know, Hermione, I need you to research any creatures in the area so we aren't caught unaware." _Of course_, thought Hermione, _researching again_.

Hermione tuned out of the conversation. After picking at some food, she excused herself and went back to the library. _Might as well begin my research early, _she thought halfheartedly as she searched the book titles for anything about creatures. One title caught her eyes, _The Dark Arts_. Something was drawing her to the book, before she realized it; she was sitting down, reading from the book of Dark Arts. _Why would the Order have such a book in their headquarters_, wondered Hermione. But it dawned on her that they must expect people to only read this book to get more information about defeating it.

She stayed up all night reading book after book on the Dark Arts, and she was now hopelessly drawn to the subject. It was when she was reading a biography of a Death Eater turned good that she realized it. Each Death Eater was treated with respect, they all went on missions, were rewarded for triumphs, punished for mistakes. Everything they did seemed _right_, they sure didn't stick a brainy witch or wizard on research duty, no, they'd use that said person to their full potential. _Full potential, have I been living up to mine_? _Following Harry around like a puppy, doing what anyone asks of me, researching when I should be fighting. But hey, have I been fighting for the wrong side all along_? _No, I must be talking crazy, the Death Eaters were not the good team, they were the bad. The evil, the insane_. But the more Hermione thought about it the more she realized, the Order's attacks were as brutal and barbaric as the Death Eater's, for they had now resorted to killing the families, children and all, of the Death Eaters, even though they'd done nothing wrong. It wasn't their fault that they'd been born into that life. Was 'that life' the life that Hermione wanted? She didn't know. All she knew is that she didn't want the life she had right now. Pulling out a parchment, she began a letter,

_Hello everyone,_

_I'm taking a vacation from all of this. I'll probably visit my parents, and travel a bit. Sorry if this is inconvenient, since no one else wants to __research__, but I really just need some time away. I'll be back shortly,_

_Hermione_

Grabbing the note, she headed for her bedroom. Ginny was nowhere to be seen. _Probably with Harry_, thought Hermione and she levitated everything she owned into her trunk.

Once packed, she put the note on her bed, and Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.

The place looked the same as it did when she last stepped foot in it, five years ago. She was given a room immediately and as soon as she had unpacked, she pocketed her Gringotts key and headed for the bank. If she wanted to learn more about the Dark Arts, she'd have to have money for Knockturn Alley.

She had only heard about Knockturn Alley from what Harry had told her about his one accidental visit. He hadn't described it well at all. The place was simply amazing to Hermione; everything was so dark that absolutely everything looked enchanting. But the first thing that caught her eye was the bookshop.

The bookshop was filled with nothing but Dark Arts books. It became a haven for Hermione, who visited everyday and read books. Since she wasn't rich enough to buy them all, she just had to give the owner a bit of money and he'd allow her to read a certain number of books for that day as long as she'd buy at least one book. So that is what she'd do. After reading hours on end, she'd find the book that she found the best, most informative or just the most intriguing and then buy it.

After a week there, she'd found the best books in her life. Even after she had read the books she'd bought one time already, she'd read it three more times just to make sure she'd read everything there was to read.

But even that wasn't enough. She read more and more in the bookshop, until she was halfway done with everything. The storeowner was shocked at her enjoyment of books about the Dark Arts. He told her that if she worked in the bookshop for him as he went somewhere for a few days, she could read all she wanted. Instantly she agreed. Marcus, the owner, was very secretive about where he was going. All he told her was that something impromptu and urgent had come up. She didn't dare ask questions for she had been given an amazing opportunity to learn more.

So that was how her days went for Marcus's absence. She would read unless a customer came in, in which case she would help them look for any certain book they were searching for then once they had paid she would go back to reading. Reading these books was helping her so much. She found out that the Dark Arts shouldn't be illegal, for they were amazing and terrific gifts, and if someone was able to do some of these things, they should be _worshiped_ for sometimes doing Dark Magic was harder than it appeared. She realized that Defense Against the Dark Arts was a pointless subject; they should have been taking Dark Arts instead. Instead of defended themselves against the Dark Arts, they should be learning it, for then, then everyone would have a chance to be worshiped for an amazing gift.

A week later her paradise ended when Marcus came back. Luckily she'd had so much spare time she had completed every book in the shop except the ones of the top shelf, which she couldn't reach, and also were locked in a charmed case, which could only be opened by one person. Hermione was guessing that one person might just be Marcus, or perhaps Voldemort himself. Marcus entered the shop at midnight, when Hermione was rereading a book about Dark Spells. But he had not entered alone. A pale man with long silvery blond hair and icy blue; almost gray; eyes entered with him. He looked her over; pausing at her chest, before pulling her up to her feet.

"Look at me, wench," he snarled, cupping her chin in his rough, calloused hand. Hermione blinked slowly and breathed in deeply, but looked the frightening man in the eyes, "you are being given an opportunity most people would imprison or kill you for doing so. You may not even _want _the chance you are being given, but you will take it. You, Hermione Granger, a _mudblood_, will come with me to my Manor where you will be taught everything you need to know about the Dark Arts. If you live to see past your training, you might just be presented to the Dark Lord as an honorable servant.

"The road to being the Dark Lord's servant will be tough. It was tough for me, but _I_ am not a mudblood. Everyone will be rooting on you to fail. Hell, I'll be rooting on you to fail. But Mr. Trebastin has a very strange faith in you, as he stated when he came to talk to me.

"I will give you the rules now. If you don't want this chance, to prove yourself, I'll give you a five second head start before I come after you. You won't live if you don't take this opportunity. First things first, everyone is your superior. You will call the Dark Lord, master or my lord. Everyone else will be called sir, ma'am, my superior or whatever name they have specified for you to call them. I mean _anything_. My son has taken it upon himself to make the trainees call him ridiculous things, but the ones who disobeyed...well I'd tell you to ask those people yourself but...they aren't _available_ to tell you. Trainees are punished for their mistakes, but very rarely rewarded for their triumphs. If you make it past your training, you will be highly rewarded for your victories, but still punished for your disobedience or errors. You are to respect your teachers at all times. Imagine you are back at school again; you need all that dedication plus ten times more. _This_ is your real school, not Hogwarts. At the end of training there is one task that is asked of you. You _must_ do it. Even if you do your entire training perfectly, if you do not complete your task, you are killed. Let me rephrase that. _Tortured_ and then killed. If you are lucky and the screw-up of your task was minor, you might just be tortured.

"Being a Death Eater is more important than _anything_ you'd ever do. You will never receive a job that is not entirely important. But whatever that job may be...you must complete it. The Dark Lord doesn't like it when a task isn't completed. You are rewarded if you complete a difficult task well. You are rewarded if you _save_ another member from screwing up their job completely. But most importantly, you are greatly rewarded if you bring anyone from the Order to us that might lure in Harry Potter.

"In most certainly, you will be used as a spy. Because of this, you'll probably have to go back to the Order headquarters and act like you are still one of them. Again, that is, if you live through your training. Even if you still hate them all with every fiber of your being, you have to go back. You have to get information from the meetings. And, you have to somehow convince them to let you into the higher-level meetings. I don't know how you will do that. _Seduce_ one of the men perhaps. If you hear about a raid that is about to take place, and you know that there are Death Eaters in that location, you need to contact someone there immediately. But I am not jesting when I say you need to make it not look suspicious. You will be most useful as a spy, and if you are discovered...the Dark Lord probably will not be pleased. He will not kill you, for you will still be useful to him seeing as you have read almost every book on the Dark Arts ever written, _but_ it would be good not to ever be discovered as a spy. Like Snape for instance. He was still completely unexpected until he had to kill that old fool Dumbledore since my _son_ couldn't complete his task. And he was punished for that I tell you. Snape, of course, had to flee the school. But he is still a loyal Death Eater. We need someone at the same age of Potter to spy for us. Learn what the ones closest to Potter are saying. You never know. Sometimes they get angry and do something _stupid_; perhaps think they can take us on themselves and come out to get us. You'll never really know.

"That's it for now. Do you have clothes? I suppose you have taken up a room in the Leaky Cauldron. Go get your things. I'll meet you here in ten minutes. Don't be late."

Hermione blinked, like she had been taken out of a trance. Even though the man had almost been speaking for probably about five minutes, it felt like a million years.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, sir." She told him, before nodding and exiting the store. She wandered quickly but aimlessly down the path. If she was worried about keeping Mr. Malfoy waiting, she would have been running, but she had been wearing the same clothes since she had gotten there, so absorbed in her reading that she hadn't taken mind to change. Therefore everything was already in her trunk except one or two items. She was completely engulfed in her own thoughts. How lucky was she? She was about to go searching for the Death Eaters, but instead they came to her. She must be useful. Far more useful than the Order gave her credit for. That was all she thought about as she climbed the stairs to the second floor of the Leaky Cauldron. When she reached her room, she pulled open the door and peeked in. As she had expected, her trunk was almost completely packed. She threw in the knick-knacks that were lying around and closed her trunk. Once she had reached the front desk, she threw some money on the desk along with the key before exiting and heading back to the bookstore in Knockturn Alley. The entirety of the way she was thinking about what her life would be as a Death Eater. She had visions of her being greatly rewarded for all of her triumphs, and had an inspiration of herself bringing Harry Potter in to meet his death by the Dark Lord. She wondered if the images going through her minds were silly daydreams or actual prophecies of times to come. She hoped for the latter.

When she reached the darkened bookstore, she saw a figure waiting outside. He was in the shadows, but she could tell it was Mr. Malfoy.

"I'm here, sir," she whispered to him, but he didn't respond. He simply strode up to her and grabbed her arm in a vice-grip. In an instant they were Apparating. Hermione was now used to the strange sensation one felt when Apparating, but the unusual feeling was about not knowing where they were Apparating.

But before she could blink an eye, they appeared in what looked like the entry hall of an enormous house. _The Malfoy Manor_, thought Hermione in awe as she looked around at the phenomenal and mystifying objects that surrounded her; some of which she had just recently read about. Like the Hostile 'Welcoming' plant, which attacked anyone who was in the entry hall and shouldn't be, or like the picture of the Malfoy family, which she read had been painted by the most famous Wizarding painter of the age. There was so much to look at, but so little time, since Lucius did not let go of her arm and quite literally dragged her through huge sitting rooms, studies, libraries ("wow, this is the biggest—" Hermione exclaimed, but was interrupted as Lucius continued dragging her), and a ballroom before reaching the destination. A...broom closet?

"You will wait in here until I find your teacher." Lucius ordered, before shoving her into the tiny dark room. Hermione was utterly confused. She shifted her position on the wooden floor, pulling her hand to her chin so she could rest her chin on it and placed her elbow on what seemed like a box. It wasn't...

"Damn!" she muttered as her elbow went into a bucket of water. And of course it must have been dirty water. As she pulled her elbow out, she rammed into the side and spilled the entire contents onto her faded jeans. What a first impression she was going to make to her teacher. Clumsily, she stood and searched around for a rag or towel of some sort. She found none. She was just about adjusted to the darkness when...the door swung open.

"Mudblood?" asked a male voice from the door. Hermione squinted into the brightness, until she made out a tall figure. It was Malfoy. _I guess it won't be such a bad _first_ impression after all_, she thought glumly, _just embarrassing. _"Oh how the mighty have fallen. Man, am I going to have fun with this. Get out here, you look like a complete disaster."

"Gee thanks," she said, sarcastically, stepping out of the closet. She walked out and stopped, so that her back was facing Malfoy. Suddenly, an excruciating pain filled throughout her body. She felt as if a million needles were piercing through her skin, a thousand daggers were stabbing her repeatedly; a swarm of sharks were attacking her profusely. But not just one of those. All of them. At once. She let out a heart-wrenching, glass-breaking scream. Her body fell to the floor in a heap. She was shaking, her heart was beating twenty times faster than normal, she was sweating like a pig and even worse...it was all in front of Malfoy. She didn't want to stand, she didn't want to move, but she had to. It probably wasn't accepted to be weak and stay on the ground. So she wobbled to her feet, then hobbled over to the wall, and promptly collapsed against it.

"Bloody hell, Granger, have you had no experience with the Cruciatus Curse?" he asked her, almost sounding worried. Still shaking, she glanced at him,

"Of course I have." She snapped, groaning.

"You haven't. Why's that, mudblood?"

"Because—because," she started, "they don't let me go on missions. I just—research. And research and research and—" the sudden anger gave Hermione her strength back. She pushed herself off the wall and began pacing, "I can do more than research. But they don't believe it. They've got bloody RONALD as Harry's second in command. RONALD! As if he can do anything remotely important. He can barely use the Cruciatus curse himself. He's the same age as _you_. That," she pointed at Malfoy, "hurt. Pain beyond pain. Like it's _supposed_ to be. Ronald can barely make a rat shudder with his Cruciatus. He tried it on me once when I made him angry. I _laughed_. LAUGHED! Because it was so bloody funny. It felt like an ant was climbing up my leg. An _ant_! Ants are not painful. You kill _ants_ with your shoes. You _step _on ants. In a war against ants and humans, who would win? Hmmm...we would. It wouldn't be a war it'd be like a cakewalk. Ever heard of those? You win cake. And it's easy. Because all you do is walk in a circle and stand on a number when the music stops. If they call your number you win. That's insanely easy, right? No need to tell me, I know it's—"

"Granger, are you okay? You sound mental."

"_I_ am fine. Just angry. Can we learn something now?"

"Yes. I am your teacher, and you will call me...my lord and superior sexy beast at all times. Nothing else. If you want to shorten it when you are in a hurry you may call me sexy beast. _Why_ do you have water all over your pants?"

"Because of that stupid bucket," Hermione told him, pointing at the spilled bucket. He looked pointedly at her, "my lord and superior sexy beast." she added, quickly, looking anywhere but at his face.

But even a blind woman would realize that Draco Malfoy _was_ a 'sexy beast'. His silvery blond hair still looked as it did in school, at least third year and after, and his gray eyes were still emotionless, but you could see his chest and abs through his black t-shirt and he looked _good_. She didn't care. He was still the annoying prat he was and always would be.

"Well we don't have time for you to change. There is too much for you to do. This is the perfect time for you to run the obstacle course. Trainees do that a lot. First time will be the hardest. You'll either finish or die. There is no giving up. Follow me." Draco Malfoy told her, as he began walking down the hallway. Hermione followed, taking in the artwork and artifacts around her. They walked through almost the entire house, until they reached one door that was all black.

"There's the deal. I'll be in the room above you. The ground in the room I will be in is made of unbreakable glass. I will be able to watch everything you do. You won't be able to hide a mistake from me. I can also hear everything you are saying and listen to your thoughts. I'll know what you fear. For the first time there is no time limit. Now go. Stand right where you enter until I give you the signal that I am ready to watch. He opened the door and Hermione stepped into the pitch-black room. The door was shut behind her and she heard the click that signaled the door had been locked. _Well, no turning back now_. She tried to get adjusted to the darkness, but found she couldn't. _Ha, I'll bet the darkness is charmed so no one can get adjusted to it_, Hermione thought, thinking quickly of the counter-charm. _Now that I think of it, I'm sure 'Alohamora' will probably send whatever is hiding in here at me, but if I just remember that counter for it...then the darkness will completely disappear leaving me nothing but light. That would help me see everything ahead. I wonder how many others have thought of it not just being actual, real darkness_. She wondered, as she waited for Draco Malfoy's signal. _He could have told me what the signal was. What if I missed it? _Her thoughts were interrupted by another thought in her head that was not her own. _Sorry for the delay. Just reading all your thoughts. I didn't know that you slept in the nude_. Her face flashed red with embarrassment, and she was glad for the darkness for Draco Malfoy couldn't see it. _You had no right to go through my private...er...thoughts. Can I start now? _She could almost feel him smirking. _Go straight ahead_. _But I wouldn't do what you were planning. Not smart at all_. Narrowing her eyes, _why should I believe anything you say_? _Well I have done it before_, he told her. _You're tricking me and I know it. I'm not an idiot_. There was a pause like he disappeared from her mind, _could have fooled me_. But Hermione wasn't going to listen to his mind games. Quickly and silently she muttered the counter-curse. In one smooth, fluid movement, all darkness from the room had vanished. Hermione could know see she was in a narrow hallway. There was absolutely nothing around, but she was sure that there would be. With her wand arms length apart, Hermione began cautiously went forward. The empty hallway was eerily quiet. She actually would have liked it better if something jumped out at her, because then she wouldn't be wondering why nothing was happening.

"Woah!" screeched Hermione, as she was thrown onto the ground. The world spun around her for a moment, and her eyes got blurry. "Oww!" she kicked at the creature trying to attack her. She now saw it was a Nundu, an animal that resembled a giant leopard. It was dangerous since it moved so silently and its breath caused diseases. Hermione held her breath. A sharp pain went through her leg, and she felt a warm liquid on her leg. The Nundu had cut through her jeans and pierced her skin.

"Conjunctivitis!" she muttered, pointing her wand at the creature. It shrieked and wobbled, its eyes now crusted together. With her breath still being held, Hermione got up and limped past the creature and along the past. The blood from her leg was dripping on the floor, but she couldn't stop to heal it. She had only walked probably half a minute when she saw what looked like a black cloak that was probably about half an inch thick. _A Lethifold_, Hermione thought. She tried to remember what she had read about it. _A Lethifold...a Lethifold is a carnivorous creature that glides along the ground in search of prey to suffocate and digest. The only known spell capable of repelling a Lethifold is the Patronus Charm. With its cloak like appearance and susceptibility to the Patronus Charm, a Lethifold is similar to the Dementor, and possibly some distant relative to the species._

"Expecto Patronum!" Once Hermione's Patronus had scared off the Lethifold, Hermione went on. She figured she was doing pretty well. The next creature that crossed her path was an Ashwinder, or a pale-grey serpent with glowing red eyes. A blazing fire roared behind it. Quickly, Hermione went forward and Stupefy-ed it. Since she was right next to the fire, she easily extinguished the fire with the Extinguishing Spell.

The entire obstacle course took Hermione three hours and fifteen minutes to complete. She was just about to pull open the door to exit the course when the same intense pain, this time coming from above. She knew it was just Malfoy testing to see if she could take any more pain. She bit her lip so hard that she tasted the irony taste of blood in her mouth. Her feet became weak, but she stayed standing, grabbing onto the doorknob for support. She blinked, and was standing next to Malfoy. The doorknob had been a port key.

"Malfoy," she gasped, "can you not accept I completed the course?"

"No that's not it," he said, looking very amused, "you were the slowest person that has ever done the course, including Crabbe and Goyle, _and_ you are the most beat-up."

"_What_? That can't be. I did it in three hours. That has to be faster than—"

"Nope," said Malfoy, shaking his head, "you were the slowest. But like I said, it doesn't really matter right now. Next time you'll have a time limit of two hours and then one hour. Once you've mastered the one-hour you'll have a break from the obstacle course. But at the end of your training you'll have to do it again in less than in hour." Hermione nodded,

"Sure." She said, "So what's next?"

"Wait, who are you addressing?" asked an amused Draco.

"My lord and superior sexy beast. Are you going to insist on me calling you this for all the training?"

"Yes I am," said Draco, "now follow me. You look like you need something to eat."

"I do," she said, gratefully, and followed him down the hall. She was limping, and didn't know if she should heal herself or not. Maybe they wanted her to embrace the pain until it doesn't hurt anymore. Or maybe they wanted her to heal it straight away.

"Just leave it be." Draco told her, he must have once again reading her thoughts.

"I really would just _love_ it if you stopped doing that!" she snapped, as they walked into the dining room.

"You were wondering and worrying like crazy." he whispered to her, and gestured her to come the way he was heading.

They were not the only people in the dining room. There was a long wood table with probably around thirty chairs around it. Five of these chairs were occupied. In one of them sat Lucius Malfoy in black robes and a cool expression on his face. Narcissa Malfoy was next to him in a black skirt and a white blouse. Her expression matching her husband's. She saw Bellatrix Lestrange, who she remembered from her fifth year. She looked a little better, since she had escaped from Azkaban, and wasn't as pale and her face wasn't as sunken. She actually looked quite pretty, in an intense kind of way. Bellatrix was talking jubilantly with a man who Hermione remembered as Avery. The last person was, surprisingly, Professor Snape. He looked like his life on the run hadn't done him much to his appearance. His hair was longer, and he _was_ paler, but overall he looked basically the same. His expression was still the same, emotionless or sneering. Currently he looked bored. Draco had led her to where Lucius was.

"So she did the obstacle course?" she heard Lucius ask Draco in a hushed voice.

"Slowly, but yes. Surprisingly, she did realize the darkness wasn't truthful. She knew that it was _simultas obscurum_," whispered Draco. Lucius raised his eyebrows and looked at Hermione. Hermione looked at her shoes.

"You knew it was simultas obscurum? And yet you took the longest and got the most hurt? Why is this, Miss Granger?"

"Well, sir, when I was in the Order, they didn't let me go on any missions. All I got to do was research. So I never got any experience in the real life. But I did read a lot, so that's how I knew about _simultas obscurum_."

"And yet you can do the counter-curse on the first try?"

"Yes, sir, I've always been able to read about spells and then be able to do them on the first try..."

"And yet you scream and all but faint at the Cruciatus Curse? You are weak," he spat at her, "and you need to get stronger if you want to pass as a servant of the Dark Lord. Now get something to eat quickly and get of my face as soon as possible." Hermione was shocked at his words. She was the only one who knew it was _simultas obscurum_ and yet she gets yelled at for being hurt by the Cruciatus? But what could you do? At least he didn't torture her for being too slow. So she backed off, and took a seat at the far end of the table, so she was away from the group of Death Eaters who weren't a disappointment. Quickly she took a roll and some pasta and began eating as speedily as she could. She felt the looks from around the table. She heard Bellatrix chuckling about how she wouldn't make it past training. _I'll show you_, Hermione thought, _I'll show each one of you_.

After dinner, she waited for Malfoy outside the door. He was talking with the actual Death Eaters about plans. Trainees weren't allowed in even the meetings with no importance until they were sworn in. With a sigh, she inspected her wounds. Beside the scratch from the Nundu, she had minor burns from the fire with the Ashwinder, some abrasions and burns from the Acromantula, a few bites from the Erkling and a twisted ankle from running from a creature she couldn't quite figure out how to slow down and dodged every curse that she threw at it. Hermione heard laughter from inside, and put her ear to the door.

"Do you think she'll make it past week one?" asked Narcissa.

"No," said Lucius, sounding very, very amused, "if you can't face the Cruciatus, you can't—"

"But that was simply because of her lack of practice, am I right?" Snape asked.

"Well–-yes..." admitted Malfoy.

"She might be able to make it past training. But I'll doubt she'll be able to do the task we ask of her." Avery said.

"Do we already know what the task is?" wondered Bellatrix, eagerly.

"Not completely. It'll test to make sure she has no more good feelings for her precious Order."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Alright. Reading through this story, I've noticed some spelling/grammar issues. Also, some language that isn't good for the teen rating. So I'm going through and changing all that. Also, based on a review, I'm looking through to make sure Hermione isn't OOC. Personally, I don't think she is. But, anything for the reviewers. :D


	2. Glacialis nex

Chapter Two

The training was hard. After only a week Hermione was tired, hungry, and weak. But she was also snippy and angry. She knew that training was supposed to be hard, but she didn't know that it would be hard for _her_. She figured difficult meant difficult for anyone _but_ her. After all, she wasn't the smartest witch of her time at Hogwarts for no reason. And yet...this was so hard for her. She could finish the obstacle course within the time limit, but usually just in time. Even though she knew what was in the course, she still got cut up or bloodied by at least one of the creatures. Malfoy would only tell her how long the training was, half a year, and nothing more. But even though she hated how badly she was doing, she knew that the Death Eaters were a lot smarter than the Order. The Order basically just let anyone in. Death Eaters made the trainees _work_ for it. They made sure that the people they let in were fully able to be a good Death Eater before they let them in. Hermione completely respected this, and every one of the Death Eaters that she has meant. She especially liked Narcissa, who taught her about herbs. Professor Snape taught her potions that were either deadly, or very useful that she never would have been able to learn at Hogwarts, and Avery taught her Dark Spells, which was her favorite. Draco Malfoy did everything else with her, took her to the obstacle courses or dungeons. When he took her to the dungeons, they were testing her strength of seeing torture. That was _not_ her favorite part of the day. It was Bellatrix that did the torturing, and she always hinted about how the people she was torturing were Muggles. Hermione could tell Bellatrix was telling her that if she took one wrong step _she_ might be the Muggle being tortured.

Currently, Hermione was in the dungeons, once again watching Bellatrix torture a helpless and completely innocent Muggle. When Hermione was in the dungeons, she was strapped to a chair. Her legs were tied to the chair legs, her arms were tied behind the chair, and her head was tied at her forehead, chin, and neck so that she couldn't look away. Bellatrix put a charm on her eyes so she couldn't shut them, only blink once every 20 seconds. A teenaged girl was chained to the wall this day. She was tall, blond and pale with sparkling blue eyes and high cheekbones. She was probably a model, but right now she didn't look very...well..._good_. The girl was muddy and crying but was not hurt at the current time.

"Look at her, Miss Granger." Bellatrix ordered. Hermione blinked and looked at the girl.

"Yes, ma'am." She told her, knowing that Bellatrix did not accept whispering. Bellatrix pulled out her wand on the girl, pointing it under the girl's chin.

"Wha—what's that?" stuttered the girl.

"Crucio!" bellowed Bellatrix, not flinching as the girl screamed in pain. Hermione wanted to so badly wanted to Crucio Bellatrix but she was sure that Bellatrix wouldn't do anything but laugh.

"What kind of crazy shit are you?" The girl yelled, trying to get away.

"Did you hear that, Miss Granger?" Bellatrix asked, turning to Hermione.

"Yes, I did, ma'am." Hermione said in a completely flat tone. Bellatrix narrowed her eyes at the girl, but still spoke to Hermione.

"They'll never accept us. All Muggles are the same. They think we're _strange_ and _abnormal_. And if they think that...do they deserve to live? After all, if it's us against them you'd want us to win, wouldn't you, Miss Granger?"

"I suppose so, my superior." Hermione stated in a clear voice.

"You _suppose_? Are you saying you'd rather _die_ then have Muggles die?"

"No, ma'am. I would rather us win a war against Muggles." she replied in a monotone.

"Good. Now want to see a new spell, Miss Granger?"

"Yes, ma'am. I do." Hermione said, rather excited.

"Alright. You've probably not read about this one. It is a spell that freezes the person's body from the inside. Sort of like an extreme frostbite, not stopping until you put your wand down. The incantation is 'Glacialis nex'. The Dark Lord invented the spell, and is keep it hidden so that the Order is kept unaware of it until we use it to get rid of them all. Ready?"

"Yes, ma'am." Hermione nodded, looking eagerly at the girl, who looked more worried.

"Glacialis nex!" roared Bellatrix. The girl screamed and instantly began to shiver. Her scream soon turned into a whisper, and her skin began turning blue. Another minute past, and the girl went still and silent. "And that, Miss Granger is the 'Glacialis nex' spell. Don't try to attempt it before you are ready, alright?"

"But, in all respect, ma'am. I'd really love to try it." Hermione told Bellatrix, hopefully. Bellatrix couldn't resist someone being so hopeful about torture.

"Well, alright I suppose. I'll be right back." relented Bellatrix, before Disapparating from the room. _I am so glad I get to try this spell. I've always wanted to try a spell invented by the Dark Lord_. _This is going to be amazing_.

Hermione waited, tied to the chair for twenty minutes when Bellatrix Apparated back, this time she wasn't alone. There was a woman, probably about in her mid-twenties. But again, this wasn't all. Lucius was with her, along with Snape, Avery and Malfoy.

"They want to see your success...or failure. Probably failure." said Bellatrix, as she chained the woman to the wall, "Now...you need to know the correct pronunciation of it. Glaa-c-I-eh-less nex. All you need to do is point your wand at the person you all performing the spell on. Very simple, but only people in the league or soon to be in the league of the Dark Lord can use it. But somehow I think if the Order hears of it, they'll do whatever it takes to find out how to use it themselves. That's why we are keeping it a secret as long as possible. Now you try."

Hermione focused on the woman and pointed her wand at her.

"Glacialis nex!" she said, trying to make her voice sound forceful. The woman gave a jolt,

"Wh—Why am I s—so col—cold?" she stuttered. Hermione's eyes widened. Had she actually done it on her first try? The woman shook madly, her face then body began turning blue. It was...it was working; only it seemed to be working _better_ than Bellatrix's... Was that possible?

It must have been. The awed looks of shock on everyone's faces _proved_ that her spell had been stronger than Bellatrix's. Lucius looked at Hermione, then Bellatrix, then finally at his son.

"Was that...did that?" stuttered Avery, looking amazed.

"I think that Miss Granger has just completed her training," said Lucius, quietly.

"_What_?" hissed Malfoy, "even _I_ had to go through—"

"Silence! Clean her up, make her presentable. We'll contact the Dark Lord and tell him to come as soon as h"

Bellatrix grabbed Hermione by the arm and pulled her out of the dungeon.

"Do you know what this means?" Bellatrix asked her, sharply.

"Not a clue, ma'am."

"You could be the one we were looking for. The one in the prophecy. I shouldn't say anymore. Come. We need to make you decent." Bellatrix told her, and pulled her into her own bedroom.

"Why are we in here, ma'am?"

"Well you obviously don't have any dress robes that are good enough. Here, these don't fit me anymore."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Yes, yes, I'm a saint," she said, sarcastically, "change into them now."

As Hermione changed into the long, flowing blood red dress with a low v-neck and a cut up the side.

"You're the first, you know," started Bellatrix, as she brought Hermione over to the vanity table, "no one has ever, _ever_ not had to complete their training. Nothing has ever occurred so that the person could just stop in the beginning of their training and become a servant of the Dark Lord. You're very lucky. Some very difficult training had rest ahead of you. Avery told me that you aren't even in need of Dark Spells anymore. Now let's work on your hair. I'm thinking wavy, hmm?"

"Whatever you think is best, ma'am." Hermione said, dutifully.

"Alright. Vultus change." she said, pointing her wand at Hermione's hair. Before she could blink, Hermione's bushy curls had transformed into tumbling and graceful waves that reached down to her mid-back, "For make-up...I'm thinking deep red lipstick, gray eye shadow and black mascara." This time she didn't ask what Hermione thought, "Vultus change." She said, pointing to Hermione's face. Exactly what Bellatrix had said for make-up had appeared on her face. In less then five minutes, Hermione was beautiful, "Now all you need are shoes. Do you—"

"Don't worry, ma'am. I think I've got this part covered."

"Okay. Meet us all down in the entry hall once you've got your shoes on. And don't be slow." Hermione rushed from the room and as she ran to her bedroom, she couldn't believe her luck. All she had asked for was to try a spell and now people were thinking she might be apart of a prophecy. She got to stop training and become a Death Eater after one week. How lucky was she?

When she had reached her bedroom, she looked through her trunk until she found what she was looking for. They were two-inch red kitten heels. She'd never felt the need to wear them before now, but she was glad she had bought them. Once she had put on the shoes, she inspected herself in the mirror. She had never been good at dressing up for special occasions or otherwise, so she felt actually kind of lucky to have the help of Bellatrix. Like she'd ever thought she would say that. As she walked down to meet everybody. She wondered if the Dark Lord was already there.

Everyone was down there when she started down the stairs. They were all dressed up in dress robes, and looking impatient. When she stood next to them, Bellatrix snapped,

"We have fifteen minutes to prepare a celebration before the Dark Lord arrives. The House Elves are already cooking. Miss Granger, you'll do your task now. Go to the Order headquarters and find someone whose dying would weaken Harry Potter. Bring that person to us."

"Alright, ma'am." Hermione said, making a list in her mind of who she should take. She was leaning towards Ginny. _She is closest to him. Or...no I've got a better plan. I'll get one of the other Weasleys. But...everyone but Ginny is older than me, so they'd be harder to bring...what about Mrs. Weasley? So now it's down to Ginny or Mrs. Weasley._

"I've got a basic plan," Hermione assured them, since they were all staring at her, looking worried at her blank look, "and I've narrowed it down to two."

"Who?" asked Malfoy Junior, eyes glinting maliciously. With a grin Hermione replied,

"Ginny Weasley or Mrs. Weasley. Any idea of which one?" Everyone was silent for a moment, weighing the options.

"Weaselette." said Draco instantly, "wait...no Mrs. Weasley."

"That's exactly the problem I was facing I can't choose." Hermione told him.

"Mrs. Weasley," said Bellatrix. That way Potter can see the woman he loves in pain. Now go, there's not much time before the Dark Lord gets here." Nodding, Hermione focused on the outside of the Order headquarters and Disapparated there.

It looked the same as it did before. The streetlights sent an eerie glow over the sidewalk and the windows were darkened in the Order headquarters. A singe light came from one window and she was sure it was coming from Harry and Ron's room, and another came from the kitchen, probably Mrs. Weasley. Hermione snuck to the front door and opened the door, hoping for no noise. She got lucky, and she was able to sneak all the way down the hallway, being especially quiet when passing Mrs. Black's painting. As she peeked into the kitchen, she saw Mrs. Weasley sitting at the dining table, stirring a cup of coffee. Being as sly and quiet as possible, she snuck up behind the chubby woman, pulled out her wand and whispered, _Stupefy_. It was then she heard a scream from upstairs. _Potter_, she thought. Footsteps were pounding down the stairs, Hermione grabbed Mrs. Weasley by the arm and Disapparated right before Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Mr. Weasley entered the kitchen.

She Apparated into the entry hall of the Malfoy Manor. Everyone was still waiting on her. Their grins grew when they saw her with her hostage.

"Only took ten minutes. Good job." congratulated Avery. Smiling triumphantly, Hermione used a spell to bind Mrs. Weasley's arms behind her back and her feet together. Hermione dragged the woman, with difficulty, into the room behind the main ballroom. The room was tiny and empty. The room was specifically for prisoners, which would explain why there was no furniture in the entirety of the room. Since she had taken Mrs. Weasley's wand and there was no way out of the room, Hermione untied her bonds. As she was shutting the door, she heard a moan. Was Mrs. Weasley waking up already? Keeping the door open a crack, Hermione peeked inside. A plump Mrs. Weasley was wobbling to her feet. Looking around, she let out a cry, and began pounding on the nearest wall. Hermione didn't have time to duck out of the room before Mrs. Weasley saw her.

"Hermione?" she asked in a hoarse voice. _Damn_, she thought, opening the door a bit wider and saying,

"Yes, it's me."

"They got you too?" Mrs. Weasley asked, sounding like she was near tears. _She'll die, I can show my true colors and they'll never know. She'll never be able to tell them,_ Hermione told herself.

"No," she started, coldly, "I've changed, Mrs. Weasley."

"Changed?" Mrs. Weasley asked, confused.

"You didn't appreciate me in the Order, and neither did anyone else. I'm already prospering here."

"I—I don't understand." whimpered Mrs. Weasley.

"And that's just like you," taunted Hermione, "you never understood anything. Except prying and _eating_."

"A—are you saying you chan—changed sides?" Mrs. Weasley asked, shocked. Rolling her eyes, Hermione opened her mouth to reply,

"You are so d—" The door opened again, Bellatrix entered. A malicious grin played on Bellatrix's features, and she said,

"He's here, Miss Granger. It'll probably look better if you bring her out yourself. Sort of like a sacrifice to the Dark Lord or such." With a nod, Hermione said,

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be out in a moment." Smirking, Bellatrix left the room, and Hermione advanced on Mrs. Weasley with her wand out.

"Hermione, Hermione you can still come back. Just get me out of here and everyone will forgive you..."

"It's too late for that." Hermione said, menacingly. Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened.

"Hermione—"

"See you know I had potential. But Potter didn't want anyone showing him up. So I got stuck with researching and _nobody _said _anything_. Everyone knew that I was better than research, everyone knew that I deserved to go on missions—"

"Is that what this is all about," Mrs. Weasley asked, sounding exasperated, "because if you come back, I can talk to them—"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking," snapped Hermione, "_Crucio_!" she muttered, pointing at the woman's lower abdomen. Mrs. Weasley screamed and collapsed on the floor. _And I thought I was weak about the Cruciatus, it's nothing compared to her. _Hermione pulled the woman to her feet and dragged her out of the room. The ballroom already looked amazing. There was a bared cage at one end of the room, and next to it, about 9 yards away, was a throne. In that throne sat Lord Voldemort. Having a body for a number of years had helped him take on a more human form. Except for his glowing red eyes, he looked like an older version of Tom Riddle, the boy he once was. But Hermione knew that her soon-to-be master wouldn't take that as a compliment. Hermione dragged Mrs. Weasley over to the cage, which Goyle Senior had pulled open. He looked like an exact version of the younger Goyle only about three times wider than his son. Mrs. Weasley started fighting, which only made the Death Eaters chuckle malevolently. Hermione pushed the chubby lady into the cage; she barely fit. Crabbe Senior; who also looked like the older version of the Crabbe she knew and used to hate.

Everyone was wearing black robes and cloaks with masks. Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Blaise Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson were talking in the corner; the sleeves of their robes were rolled up, their left forearms showing their Dark Marks. They were visibly probably for the benefit of Hermione, so she would know they were her superiors. But would they be for long? After all, wasn't Bellatrix talking of a prophecy? And say she was apart of a prophecy, wouldn't see be worshiped above all other followers?

"Everyone!" called Lucius, "gather around!" The Death Eaters went forward so that they made a half circle around the Dark Lord's throne. Hermione was feeling kind of anxious since the feast was called on her benefit.

"Loyal servants," started the Dark Lord, "the reason we are here tonight is because of a young woman who might be one of the reasons we will win this war," a quick cheer engulfed the ballroom, echoing off the walls, "Who is Hermione Granger? You may ask, and why does she get to become one of us after only a week of training? Well, Hermione Granger is a mudblood, but she has proved herself by this. Hermione Granger performed _Glacialis nex_ on the first try and performed it better than Bellatrix, herself. Hermione Granger, who used to be one of Potter's friends, may be apart of a prophecy. A prophecy so great, that with her on our side we cannot be beaten. So let's get her up here for a moment." Someone prodded her in the back, making her jerk forward. She walked cautiously up to the throne, and kneeled before her Lord, kissing the hem of his black robes.

"Rise," he hissed, "now, Hermione Granger, are you ready to be sworn in?"

"Yes, my Lord." Hermione said, clearly, not looking at Mrs. Weasley, who still looked completely shocked.

"Then we shall begin." He said. Everyone was completely silent as he proceeded, "Do you promise to abide by no other Lord or master than the one standing in front of you?"

"I promise, my Lord." I replied in a collected voice.

"Do you promise to complete all missions to my requirements?"

"I do, master."

"And you will accept any rewards or punishments that would be sent your way?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"And you accept this Dark Mark as a proof of your loyalty?"

"I do, master."

"Then hold out your arm." The Dark Lord ordered. Hermione held her left forearm out to her new Lord. With a wicked grin, the Dark Lord drew his wand like he was unsheathing a sword. He placed the tip at her forearm and muttered a spell under his breath. An excruciating pain filled her forearm, like he was tracing the Dark Mark with an actual knife. The fear of passing out presented itself, and Hermione bit her lip and tried to steady her feet. Soon the pain was over, and Hermione glanced down to see the Dark Mark, black on her reddened skin. Around the Dark Mark, her skin was rough and pale; sort of like what your belly button might look like if you pierced it, "Now, Hermione has brought us her task. Mrs. Weasley," the Dark Lord snarled, "Ah, she will be greatly missed, and it was Bellatrix's idea of why Mrs. Weasley was the best choice, I believe. Was it not, Hermione?"

"It was, my Lord. She stated it would be best if she died so Potter could see the woman he loved the most, which would be Ginerva Weasley, in pain by the loss of her mother."

"And a very smart plan," the Dark Lord said, "so who is first of my privileged servants to torture this blood traitor, you may ask. I think it shall be the person who's idea it was to bring her here. Bellatrix, you may begin." Hermione backed away so she was in with the crowd. She didn't know she had stopped right next to Draco and his friends.

"So how does it feel, Mudblood?" Draco hissed, "to be apart of something like this? Does it _frighten _you? Are you going to run back to your cherished Order?" Hermione bit back the retort at the tip of her tongue.

"No, Ferret, it doesn't scare me. As long as I do my tasks and do them well, there is nothing to be frightened _of_. And I wouldn't go back to the Order on will."

"On will?" Draco asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, I might be a spy, Ferret. You know, where you pretend you're on one side but you're actually not—"

"So you're spying for the Order? I _knew_ you hadn't changed your ways—"

"Don't be daft, Malfoy. I'm not spying _for_ the Order; I'm spying _against _it. Now be quiet so I can watch the person who fawned over Harry every day of my life be tortured." Hermione snapped, he stopped, "_Thank_ you."

Draco shut up just in time. Bellatrix had just gotten a whimpering Mrs. Weasley out of the cage. Bellatrix was mocking her, the blubbering fool that Mrs. Weasley was, as she circled the woman.

"Are you kids going to miss you?" Bellatrix asked, innocently, "are we depriving your children of a mother?" Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened, and she made a break for the door. It was quite amusing seeing her fat bouncing along with her and what was even more amusing is that she seriously thought she might be able to get away. Fifteen different _Crucios_ hit her at around the same time. Hermione thought her scream would deafen people hundreds of miles away, for that was how loud it was. She collapsed onto the floor, and even Hermione heard the crack. Mrs. Weasley must have broken something during the fall. Her ankle or wrist, perhaps. Bellatrix kicked Mrs. Weasley; she didn't want her torture to be wasted on an unconscious woman. The kicks finally aroused Mrs. Weasley, who groaned and wept at the same time. Bellatrix had Goyle and Crabbe pull Mrs. Weasley to her feet. Then Bellatrix looked through the crowd of Death Eaters, her eyes resting at the young ones; Draco, Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and herself.

"For all you young ones, this spell is very advanced and highly painful. _Vires pariter exsisto mortuus_!" she bellowed, pointing her wand at Mrs. Weasley. If the Earth were to explode at this moment, you wouldn't hear it over Mrs. Weasley's screams. She looked like she was having a seizure _Vires pariter exsisto mortuus_..._I'll have to remember that_, thought Hermione.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Weasley had recovered from the Vire pariter exsisto mortuus, and Bellatrix transfigured an object nearby into a dagger.

"Yes," drawled Bellatrix, "dagger's may be invented by _Muggles _I find that it is particularly useful. It can _draw out_ the pain," as she said 'draw out' she sliced Mrs. Weasley's arm. Blood seeped out and fell in droplets on the marble floor. But when it reached the floor, the red liquid disappeared immediately, like a cleaning spell had been put on the floor. Mrs. Weasley was weeping like a child now, and you could see her skin cut in half. It almost made Hermione sick; she was seeing someone's insides. Shaking her head, she focused on Bellatrix, who was tauntingly putting the knife to Mrs. Weasley's throat,

"I could kill you," she hissed, staring at Mrs. Weasley so hard that she might have burned a hole in Mrs. Wealsey's skin.

"Thank you, Bellatrix," said the Dark Lord in his raspy, hoarse voice, "next we'll have...well how about the person who brought this woman to us. Hermione Granger." Hermione was shocked at first, but not really surprised. After all, Bellatrix got to torture her, because it was her idea, so therefore...well in any case, Hermione took out her wand and walked into the middle, (the Death Eaters had sort of made a circle so Mrs. Weasley was in the middle. The Dark Lord was also apart of the circle, but only because the circle had been started next to him). Hermione strode up to Mrs. Weasley, and said, innocently,

"_Hi _Mrs. Weasley. So glad you dropped by. Did you know that I can do a curse called Glacialis nex? Yeah, well, I'm sure your helpless, pathetic son _Ronald_ couldn't do it. He can't even—"

"BE QUIET," said Mrs. Weasley shrilly, "Just—"

"_Crucio_," said Hermione, calmly, pointing the wand directly at the woman's head, "_Don't_ tell me what to do." she hissed, as Mrs. Weasley screamed in pain, "Guess what else, Mrs. Weasley? I learned a new spell a couple weeks ago. Want to see it in action? _Sono memoria deleo_!" The Death Eaters looked at her in as much awe as they could without looking like they were admiring her. Draco scowled and rolled his eyes, almost at the same time. The Dark Lord grinned, evilly, watching intently. Mrs. Weasley blinked, "Who are you? Where am I? What's that in your...little thing that you're holding that thing in?" asked the confused Mrs. Weasley. Hermione led back laughter. The spell caused the person to forget everything; only it worked different than a normal memory wipe. This one made them forget everything, even things most people remembered in memory spells. Body parts, how to count, what numbers were...and soon...how to breathe. Only a moment later, Mrs. Weasley started to gasp for breath, then turned a light shade of blue,

"_Reverto memoria_," muttered Hermione, and a moment later Mrs. Weasley was back to normal, "_Crucio_," said Hermione, not skipping a beat. And then Molly Weasley began screaming once more.

"Thank you for that, Hermione. Later, if you wish, you shall finish off the job. Next we'll have...Draco Malfoy." Malfoy stalked up and pushed Hermione aside, probably very keen on showing Hermione up. Rolling her eyes, Hermione stepped backwards until she was back with the group.

"_Crucio_," started Draco, sneering. As Mrs. Weasley began to scream, Malfoy repeated the curse. He repeated it three more times, until Molly Weasley's screams were almost used to. When the screaming stopped...the room was silent, still echoing with the remembrance of her shrieks.

"_Vires pariter exsisto mortuus," _tried Malfoy. Molly screamed, but it obviously wasn't as powerful as Bellatrix's. He replicated that spell a few more times. You could tell he loved to hear the screams. This time, once the room went silent, the Dark Lord spoke again,

"And we'll have Hermione finish her up." He looked almost excited, and he licked his lips as he waited. So Hermione went back into the middle, thinking quickly about how to end the 'show' with a bang. When she saw the glint of light that shone off the Order pin on her robes, she instantly thought of an idea. With a smirk, she took the Order pin and transfigured it into a dagger, like Bellatrix had done before. Hermione then ripped the back off of Molly's robes. By Mrs. Weasley's neck, Hermione leaned down and drew a skull and snake; the Dark Mark, with the dagger. Blood seeped out in the form of the 'drawing' and Molly Weasley's screams reverberated off the marble walls. The Dark Lord cackled, maniacally, but Hermione wasn't finished yet. She turned the dagger back into the pin, and looked at Mrs. Weasley's right palm, the one nearest to Hermione. Grinning, Hermione kneeled down and stabbed the pin into Mrs. Weasley's palm. Hermione looked at the pin, seeing the Order written in black script, with a wand with sparkle at the end.

"You shall die with the mark of the Order on your hand," she taunted, "_Glacialis nex_!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, this chapter is redone too. It's just little stuff, nothing that changes the plot. Don't worry. :D Oh yeah, I didn't know whether I should try and make Hermione more in character for this chapter, because I thought she was in character. Just to clarify, she's no longer in Hogwarts, five years have passed with her being ignored and shut out of everything about her so-called friends. Wouldn't you change a little bit if that happened to you?


	3. Oh my God

Chapter Three

Hermione had said the spell so forcibly, so powerfully, that Mrs. Weasley only had time to scream before the coldness consumed her and her rock-solid, blue-tinged body lay motionless on the floor. Hermione smirked at Malfoy, who was seething in anger and jealousy. His eyes were flashing with malice and his fists were clenched. Once he realized his emotions were showing, he made his expression stony and unreadable then began talking once more to his friends. The house elves were serving up the food at the catering table; where they got their food, but didn't sit down to eat it. Elves were scrambling around, setting up quickly. Hermione, who had given up S.P.E.W. years ago, had realized that House Elves liked to work.

The Death Eaters began taking plates and piling food onto it. Once the line had died down a bit, Hermione strode over and took a plate. There was so much food to choice from. Lamb chops, steak, turkey, ham, and chicken were just the choices for the main course. As well as that, there was a variety of salad selections, dozens of side dishes and an entire table of desserts. Hermione got lamb chops and a bit of salad. Next she grabbed some cornbread. Half-heartedly, she headed to a corner where a window seat rest. As she sat there and ate, she watched the other Death Eaters talking and having a good time with their friends. _It shouldn't be like this_, Hermione thought, _wasn't this party planned for me_? Someone had put on some music, and couples had begun dancing. How nice it would be if _Hermione_ had someone to dance with. She watched Lucius dancing with Narcissa, Blaise dancing with Pansy; who had gotten rather ugly, mind you, and Bellatrix dancing with her husband and wondered why she was the unlucky one cursed with being a Gryffindor. She scanned the partygoers, seeing Draco talking with Goyle and Crabbe, and she wondered where the Dark Lord was. He didn't really seem like the partying sort. _One of these days_, she told herself, _I will be asked to dance at a party like this_. Hermione looked at the Dark Mark on her forearm, staring deep into the darkness of the snake's eyes. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and knew someone was staring at her. Spinning around, she saw the Dark Lord standing before her. Hermione stood there nervously for a moment, staring at his red eyes. Hastily, she bowed, then when she was back up again, she said,

"Hello, milord."

"Hermione," he greeted, "we need to talk about your assignment. Can you come with me?"

"Yes, master." Hermione said with a smile, following the Dark Lord out of the ballroom. They walked in silence down the hallway, Hermione looking around at the artwork and sculptures on marble end tables. If there wasn't a sculpture on the end table, there was a Dark Arts ornament, which Hermione found even more intriguing. Finally, though the Dark Lord stopped in front of a dark oak door. Hermione had to stop abruptly to keep from ramming into her new master. With a quick glance behind him, the Dark Lord pulled open the door and strode in.

It was a study, probably Lucius's, with a marble desk and plushy chair. One of the walls was completely covered with books, all of Dark Arts nature. On his desk was an eagle feather quill and inkbottle along with a human skull that kind of made Hermione a bit uncomfortable. There were no pictures of his family in the entire room, but somehow that didn't surprise her. After all, she had seen the hallway that had a family portrait of every year on the wall. The Dark Lord sat down on the red cushioned chair and gestured Hermione to do the same on the uncomfortable looking chair on the other side of the desk. So Hermione did.

"Now, as I'm sure you've been told, you will be used as a spy as long as possible. You will be leaving on Sunday," today was Thursday, "and on Saturday night, the Death Eaters that are around your age will be taking you out to dinner," Hermione looking kind of confused, "what we usually do is, we have some Death Eaters do something with the newest member before their task. That way if you have any questions about your task, you'll have time to ask. You'll be wanting some more information about your assignment, I'm sure. Right when you get back to the Order headquarters, you will work on getting back good with Potter and his friends. And I'll bet you can handle that. Also, I'm sure you know that there are higher-level meetings that you are not allowed in for a while. You need to get into their meetings. Lucius has told me he gave you a suggestion on how to do so. That is probably the best plan, look for the weakest, single male and seduce him. If you do it right, I know he'll let you into the meetings. The Death Eaters that are your age are going to meet you at the nearby park once a week, Emerald Park is the name I believe, and you'll give them all the information you have. Again, you can ask them any questions you have. If there are any emergencies, if you hear about a raid that's coming, contact young Malfoy immediately. That is all."

"Okay, milord. I'll do all I can to serve you to my fullest." Hermione told him, duteously.

"You may leave," he said, crossly. With a nod and a curtsy, Hermione left the room. _What is his obsession with me and Malfoy talking so much_, wondered Hermione as she headed back to the ballroom. On her way, she became entranced with an object on a table. It was an orb, like a crystal ball, only it danced with colors; purple, silver, black, and green, unlike a crystal ball which looked like fog was trapped inside. The colors made shapes, objects in her eyes, until she saw what sort of looked like a skull with glaring red eyes. Hermione wanted to reach out and touch it...to steal it and keep it for herself. As she was about to grab it when a voice came from her right,

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," drawled Malfoy Junior, leaning against a patch of wall that was painting-less. He was smirking as Hermione backed a bit away from the orb.

"And why's that, Malfoy?" she snapped, looking him straight in his grayish blue eyes.

"It steals your sane emotions, leaving you with nothing but the worst in you," he monotoned, like he'd told people this before, "and I just saved you. You owe me."

"I don't owe you anything, Malfoy. Now if you will excuse me, _I_ have to get ready for my assignment," she said, breezing past him, "Good day." she finished, forcibly. He grabbed her arm, and spun her around so she faced him,

"Listen, I was looking for you. I heard my father talking to my mum. Something's being planned between the two of us, and I don't think it's good." Draco Malfoy told her, urgently.

"About us as in, what?" Hermione asked, getting worried. His eyes flashed with suspicion,

"So you don't know anything about it?"

"No, Malfoy, I don't. And as hard as it may be to believe if I knew something I _would_ have told you. Now, _goodbye_!" With one last glare, Malfoy let go of her arm and she rushed down the hallway, trying to compose herself. _Are they really planning something_? _Or was Malfoy just trying to make me nervous before my first assignment. It's probably that, he's never been given an assignment as important as mine_, Hermione told herself, as she shook off her worry and went to the room she stayed in.

It was a large room, as big as her parents' kitchen, living room and dining room combined, with a bathroom that was three times the size she'd ever seen before. The bedroom portion of the room had a king sized bed with dark green silk sheets and a silver quilt overtop of the sheets, two marble bedside tables on either side of the bed, one with a black marble lamp and the other sported a black marble vase with red roses inside. There was a dark oak dresser and a dark oak vanity table as well. The vanity was filled with some of the female Death Eater's make-up that they had given her. Everyone was very serious about looking good for the Dark Lord. Next to her door was a dark oak desk with a leather chair, and in the far end was a walk in closet, barely filled even with all of Hermione's clothes. There was a tiny library in her room as well, with a bookcase overflowing with books about the Dark Arts. A fireplace filled up half of one wall, and it was always emitting flames unless she chose to turn it off, which she rarely did.

The bathroom was made entirely of white marble; the bathtub, the shower, the counter top, even the toilet. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, filling the room with a warm light. A mirror was on the wall, which commented on her appearance every time she looked at it. If she still had her bushy hair, she'd probably have tried to find a way to keep the mirror quiet, or just have not looked in it at all, which would be tiring, but ever since learning the appearance changing spell, Hermione didn't mind looking into the depths of her reflection.

As Hermione had a lot of thinking to do, she decided to take a long, bubble bath to plan and scheme about her assignment. She began drawing the water, then once it was high enough, and once enough heat was radiating off it, Hermione poured in bubble bath and turned on the jets that rested on the bath's sides. Only a few minutes later, the bubbles were almost retreating out of the tub. Satisfied, Hermione stripped out of her clothes and set them on her bed for the house elves to take and clean them. She then went back into the bathroom and set a towel by the bath, then stepped gingerly into the steaming water. A soft moan escaped her lips as she sat down into the water, then rested her head on the side and stretched her feet out as far as they would go. Completely comfortable _and_ relaxed, Hermione began to think. How to get them back as her friends, what single man that went to the high level meetings to seduce, how she was going to keep her Dark Mark hidden at all times, and overall how to keep acting like a good girl on the good side were questions that came through her mind.

After a while, she had an answer to every one of them. _Presents_, she thought, _I'll give them all presents and I'll apologize and if all else fails, I'll cry_. _I'll do my research like a good girl, giving them the right information for a while, but then I'll give them some wrong information, so that they get caught unaware about a creature in the area or such._ She was also thinking that Mr. Weasley might be the one to seduce, but she realized that it would be weird since she'd known him for so long. _I guess in that case I'll just see who's weakest_. _WAIT_! She decided who the right male would be; all she needed was a bit of sorrow in his life, and to get rid of his girlfriend. Long sleeves was the only thing that came to mind about hiding the Dark Mark, and she'd be sure to ask on Saturday night if there was any other ways to hide it, though she doubted the Death Eaters her age would know. They didn't need to hide it; they weren't spying on the Order. As for the keeping a good cover, she'd have to just do what she'd always done, read. She'd just read a lot, talk just enough that they didn't suspect anything, but not enough that she might let something slip. She didn't need to worry about anyone entering her mind, she'd been learning more Occumency in training and knew that she had learned more than Potter had when he was being taught by Snape. As a matter of fact, Hermione had also been taught by Snape, only she was a bit more open to her teacher then he had been. Sighing, Hermione leaned farther back, rested her hands on top of the bubbles and closed her eyes. Now that she'd figured everything out, she could simply relax and reflect. She thought of the Death Eaters that were her age, they were all friends with each other, only because they were all in Slytherin at school. She was the lone Gryffindor, destined to be friendless in the Death Eater group. But she didn't need friends, she told herself this repeatedly. Look where friends got her last time, making her weak and sometimes emotionally unstable. So she didn't care that everyone else had someone to talk with, confide in, because she didn't need it. She could keep her words bottled up; she didn't need to talk to anyone. She wasn't an emotional person who had to talk about everything that happened to her. Before she could formulate her next thought, the bathroom door swung open and Draco Malfoy stood at the door. With a splash, Hermione dove underneath the water, placing her hands at the bottom of the tub to keep herself from rising up.

"Granger? Get up here." Draco Malfoy snarled. Hermione surfaced, keeping her body emerged in water, except her head and neck.

"What?" she snapped, "what couldn't wait one second that you had to—"

"I didn't know you were in here!" He insisted, roughly, "I was just—"

"I really don't care. Just leave for a moment, I'll be right out—"

"No, I don't have time for this," he covered his eyes with his hands, "Happy? Now get out." Rolling her eyes, Hermione quickly got out of the tub, then grabbed the towel and wrapped herself up in it, even though it was a rather short towel. She didn't know if he was peeking, but since he was a guy, he probably was. For once she wasn't going to confront him. She wanted him to think something along the lines of, _wow she doesn't have the body I thought she would_, because Hermione wasn't the same goody-two-shoes she was when she was in the Order. She wasn't a 'bad girl', by any means; she just wasn't as prudish as she was before.

"Okay," she told him. And he pulled away his hands, and she could tell he was trying to stay focused on her face, or maybe he wasn't trying. With Malfoy, you really never knew.

"I think I know what my parents were talking about...you know, what I was telling you about earlier?"

"Uh-huh." stated Hermione, grabbing a brush and running it through her hair.

"And I was wrong. I think it is a good thing. Or...kind of."

"Just finish what you are saying, Malfoy, and get out."

"I think they might be adding us into their inner circle." he said, bluntly. Rolling her eyes, Hermione said,

"Don't be daft, Malfoy. I just became a member _tonight_. They wouldn't be making me a member of the inner circ—"

"I can't believe you still haven't heard about—"

"About what?"

"Didn't anyone tell you about the prophecy?" Draco asked.

"Well Bellatrix told me that I migh—"

"Well I'm thinking they're almost sure that you _are_ apart of it so—"

"But what does that have to do with _you_—"

"_I've_ been a member since my sixth year. For _seven years_. I think I've deserv—"

"Have you done anything special? I mean, you didn't kill Dumbledo—"

"_Don't_ talk about that. You don't know how badly I was punish—"

"I can imagine," she replied, tartly, "I'll bet you were Crucio-ed until an inch of dea—"

"I _said_ don't talk about it. I've long since proven myself worthy of being in the inne—"

"How long did it take your father to get in the inner circle?" wondered Hermione.

"I don't know the exact date. Probably about 10, 15 years. But—"

"Seriously, what have you done that's _that_ important to make you think you could be—"

"Not really _that_ much. But I've been loyal, and I've never failed a mission."

"That's not enough."

"What makes you think that you would know?"

"I'm not an idiot, that's what." Hermione snapped, heading for the bathroom door, "now if we're done here..." Draco Malfoy blocked her exit,

"We aren't done," he snarled, "I need you to ask around. See if you can get any informat—"

"No," she told him, "I don't care what they're talking about. We'll find out eventually, and I plan on waiting. I'm not going to snoop around, I'm sure no one wants us to sn—"

"This isn't the Order, Granger," he snapped, "you're allowed to sneak around trying to get information out of people even if they don't want you to. Just as long as it's something they're keeping from you for a reason—"

"Then _you_ sneak around. I'm not going to do it. Now tell me more about this prophecy—"

"All I know is that it's about you and that it could help us win the war. I'm sure that you'll find out soon. I don't know, probably in a few weeks. Now, about us getting in the inner circ—"

"Give it up already. I'm not helping you. Let me pass," she said through gritted teeth.

"Fine," he relented, "I always knew you'd never get any power. You're just a filthy, worthless mudblood like you've always been." Hermione punched him hard in the face, instantly remembering when she'd done the same in third year.

"And I'm the filthy mudblood who can _still_ punch you until you cry," she hissed, "now goodbye!" She pushed past him and his bleeding nose and went into her room. When she entered, she went over to the walk-in closet and grabbed a tank top and flannel pajama bottoms, closed the door, and then quickly changed. She left, assuming Malfoy was also gone, and slid under her sheets and laid down. The bathroom door opened. Malfoy came out; his nose was no longer bleeding and looked fine, he must have fixed it with his wand, because there was also no bruise.

"Geez Granger, it's not nice to let your visitors see themselves out."

"If it'll make you leave faster, I'll do anything." Hermione told him, snottily as she climbed out of her bed. She was used to her pajamas, but she forgot that this was Malfoy. Her tank top was small; an inch of her skin was exposed at her stomach, and her cleavage was shown off more than usual. She rolled her eyes, as he didn't use all his mind power to keep his eyes on her face.

"Good night, Mr. Malfoy," she mocked, "I hope you have a good night's sleep." With that, she pushed him out the door and slammed it. _Malfoy_, she thought bitterly, _so self-absorbed_. Rolling her eyes, she headed back to her bed and crawled in. This had been one crazy day and she knew the craziness was just beginning.

She woke at the same time she always did, 8:00 AM, and groaned. Now that she thought about it, she didn't really know how late it was when she went to sleep. It could have been well past midnight. Just to make sure last night when she was sworn in wasn't a dream, Hermione looked at her forearm. The Dark Mark was there, proving she really was a Death Eater, and then the reality sunk in. She was going back to the dreaded Order, all of which would be mourning that lump's, Molly Weasley, death. She just couldn't _wait_ to be back with the people who would now not only ignore her for Harry, but ignore her about Mrs. Weasley as well. This was going to be joyous. _Oh God, and they would be a funeral as well_, Hermione thought, bitterly, _and I'll have to act surprised and sad about Mrs. Weasley_. _This is going to be tons of fun_.

Hermione thought being a Death Eater would be a lot more work, and yet Hermione could do whatever she wanted until Sunday when she left to be a spy with the people she hated. It was cruel fate, she realized, but she knew that she would be very useful to the Dark Lord as a spy. And that's what she told herself, as she took a shower, got dressed and did her make-up. It was all she thought, as she headed downstairs, grabbed a muffin and went to the library.

In fact, that's what she had to continuously tell herself all day; she doubted what she was doing. She sort of knew that would happen at some point. That eventually the good girl Hermione from the past would appear breathing down her neck, telling her to stop what she was doing, to go back to the Order, to become a double agent, having the Dark Lord think she was spying for him when in reality she was spying for the Order. But she wasn't going to let that happen. She was prospering here, a better witch then ever before. And that is how she got through her day. That was how she kept her doubtful thoughts running away.

As Friday drew to a close, she relaxed in her bedroom while she heard yelling coming from outside. Narrowing her eyes, which had been focused on the pages of a book for almost three hours, Hermione stalked over to her window and looked down. There was a bonfire raging on the grounds, with about five people crowded around it. She realized that it was Pansy, Draco, Blaise, Goyle and Crabbe and slammed the window shut again. Now she'd never be able to concentrate, knowing they were partying without her. And she was right. Five minutes later she was sitting on the windowsill, watching their enjoyment. They were laughing, talking and probably drinking fire whiskey, which instantly gave Hermione a craving for some of the drink. She decided there would be no harm in going down there, getting a drink and leaving. Then she looked down at what she was wearing, but probably not in flannel. So Hermione quickly changed into a jean skirt and a white v-neck tee shirt before grabbing her wand and heading down to the Malfoy Manor grounds.

They were even louder down there. When she reached the fire, she saw Blaise and Pansy making out, while Draco downed fire whiskey next to where the rest of the fire whiskey was kept. That meant she had to be near him, maybe even talk to him. Crabbe and Goyle were grunting at each other, poking each other then pointing at Hermione. She ignored them, and strode over to the fire whiskey. Completely ignoring Malfoy's glare, Hermione poured herself a large glass of fire whiskey and downed half of it in one gulp.

"I don't recall inviting you to—"

"Is it really _my_ fault that you have all the firewhis—"

"I'm sure there was some more in the kitc—"

"And I didn't feel like being surrounded by hordes of house-elv—"

"So you aren't trying to free all elves with that stupi—"

"That was over years ago Malfoy, and I didn't come down here to talk to yo—"

"No, you came down here because you wanted a drink," he said, sarcastically, "just admit it, you wish you were invi—"

"I don't need to go to parties, Malfoy, I won't _die_ if I'm not apart of things. I don't need any frie—"

"Don't lie to me. You wish everyday that you had friends here, don't even say you d—"

"Reading my thoughts again, Malfoy? You really need to learn to mind your own—"

"There is nothing that's not my business. This is _my_ house. So I'd—"

"This isn't your house yet, Malfoy. It's your father's, and I'm sure _he'd_ say to—"

"Shove it up your ass, Granger. Just because you don't need to complete the training, and that you might be apart of a prophecy—"

"I'm guessing your anger is out of jealousy then, huh Mal—"

"Say one more word, Granger, I dare you." he snarled, maliciously. Hermione was silent for a moment, then downed the rest of her drink and said,

"Word." She quickly filled up the drink and went over to the bonfire. She wasn't going to stay but now that she knew she wasn't welcomed...she sure as hell wasn't leaving.

**what's the lure of the dark side**

With a groan, Hermione sat up. She was in a bed, but it felt different. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was in a darkened bedroom. But it wasn't her's. Doing a quick scan of the room, she saw that it was in the Malfoy Manor; the styling and the view from the windows proved that. That didn't explain why she was in a different room then her own.

She knew she had too much to drink last night; she had a migraine and the light from the window made her wince. So she quickly stumbled out of bed, and then heard a moan from the bed. With her eyes wide, she slowly turned and saw Blaise Zabini, completely naked, still asleep on the bed she had just been in. She looked down at her body, she was naked as well. She hadn't thought much of this at first, since she used to, well, slept like that. But since Blaise was there too...

"Oh God," she muttered, "Oh God," she repeated, at a normal tone, "OH GOD!" She screamed, running around the room in search of her clothes. She saw that her clothes and Blaise's were in a trail leading from the door to the bed, "OH GOD!" she yelled again, grabbing her shirt, then bra, then jeans and underwear. "OH—" the door swung open, revealing Draco Malfoy. Hermione froze like a deer in front of a car. She was right in front of the door. Draco's eyes widened, then he walked in and closed the door, disgusted.

"Put some clothes on and keep it down before you wake up anyone who could have slept past your yelling," he snarled. With her face red, Hermione put on the clothes speedily, not looking at Draco.

"Did I—what happened last night?" Hermione asked him, as he opened the door for her. She growled at the light and shielded her eyes.

"You mean, what happened after you downed fifteen glasses of fire whiskey? Well let's see...after you flirted with Crabbe for forty minutes; he didn't know what was going on since he's never been flirted with before, danced around the fire, then insisted on having a thumb-war with Pansy, then you—"

"THEN I WHAT?"

"Did a strip tease," he muttered, looking at the ground as they walked to the dining room,

"I WHAT? ON WHO?" I practically yelled. Draco coughed, then said,

"Well...me." Hermione closed her eyes and willed herself to disappear. She was only supposed to have one drink.

"Anything else I should know about?" she whispered.

"Just after that you left with Blaise. And we all know what happened then."

"Oh God, this can't be happening."

"It is," he told her, "and you're lucky about one thing."

"What's that?"

"I put a silencing spell on Blaise's guest room last night so nobody would...hear," he started, "and I Obliviated both Pansy, Goyle and Crabbe's mind about you being there."

"So now the only people who remember are..."

"You, me and Blaise. Whose mind you can Obliviate later if you wish."

"Wow," Hermione said, "I'd never thought I'd say this to you but...thanks."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Another chapter redone. :D


	4. Don't get Caught

Chapter Four

But Merlin knew that Draco Malfoy; the jerk of the universe, was not just going to let her _thank_ him and not say something obnoxious.

"Wait, hold on. I'm just going to get a tape recorder or something and just wait...I need to get this moment on tape.

Hermione Granger _thanking_ someone. She finally realizes she can't do everything alone. This is gre—"

"Shut it, Malfoy. I knew that you'd just—"

"You know what, Granger, after I just saved your ass, you shouldn't be telling _me_ to shut—"

"Don't you dare blackmail me, Draco Malfoy. If you do I swear in the name of—"

"I'm not going to blackmail you...yet—"

"I know you're going to, so just tell me. What do you want?"

"Remember what I was telling you...about—"

"Fine, Malfoy, I'll ask around about your stupid 'inner circle' theory. But that's it. Then you can't do anything else about—"

"I won't," he said, "probably."

"Don't, Malfoy. DON'T!" She snapped, narrowing her eyes as they walked closer to the dining room. Malfoy raised his eyebrows and tested her,

"What are you going to do about it, Granger?"

"_Obliviate._" Hermione muttered, pointing her wand at Malfoy. He blinked, looked at her,

"What do you want, Granger?"

"Nothing," she said, innocently, "just thought I should tell you that your scheme about trying to find out information for that insane 'inner circle' idea is completely mental. Now go get some breakfast." And with that Hermione stalked off, proud that she was no longer in the debt of Draco Malfoy.

Breakfast would be entertaining. After Hermione had taken a quick shower, she had put on a pair of dark wash jeans and a sweater then rushed down to the breakfast. She didn't want to be late. The entire Malfoy family was there—as well as Pansy, Goyle, Crabbe, Bellatrix and Macnair, because none of the Death Eaters stayed at the Manor, except those of which were injured from raids or on the run and changing from house from house. If any of the Death Eaters had gotten drunk, which rarely happened, for it seemed every Death Eater was so used to alcohol that unless consuming about twenty glasses, they wouldn't be drunk. _Probably a spell_, Hermione thought, _I need to learn that one_. So when she sat down, she saw no one else was eating. That meant someone wasn't there. Looking around, she saw it was Blaise. The one person whose mind wasn't wiped. But Hermione didn't really care because it might be fun seeing him confused about why no one remembers her ever being at the party. Just imaging the dark haired man's expression almost made Hermione burst into fits of laughter at the table.

Bellatrix was tapping her fingers on the table in what looked like a perfected pattern, Malfoy was talking to Pansy, Goyle and Crabbe in hushed tones. Lucius was talking to Macnair about an upcoming raid on Moody's Manor. It seemed the only people who weren't engulfed in conversations were Bellatrix, Narcissa and Hermione. And that soon changed when the two other women began to talk.

Ten minutes later Lucius told one house-elf to find Blaise, then told everyone else that they could begin eating. Hermione poured herself some orange juice and took a piece of toast. Looking around, she saw that everyone around her had a healthy appetite. It was ironic that the Order was going on and on about what made the Death Eaters so quick and athletic. Other than lots of practice, the Order never even thought of what they ate. Hermione noticed every Death Eater had fruit on their plates, along with whole-wheat and low amounts of sugar. Everything that was the exact opposite of the _late_ Mrs. Weasley's cooking. _I wonder who will cook since no one has any skills remotely...I don't think anyone can boil water...except me. God, what if they demote me to cook_? _It wouldn't be unlike them_. With a quiet sigh, Hermione nibbled at her toast and as she was taking a sip of her juice, Blaise appeared in the doorway. When he saw everyone eating, he knew how late he was.

"Sorry, I'm late." he said, breathlessly as he breezed into the room and sat down next to Hermione, "bit of a late night last night," he said, looking at Hermione and winking.

"Why are you looking at Granger?" Pansy asked, "She wasn't invited. She didn't step foot out there the entire night—"

"That's true. Why _are_ you looking at the mudbl—" Draco asked.

"Because she was there!" Blaise exclaimed, looking around at his friends in bewilderment, "I know she was."

"No she wasn't," said Goyle, slowly. He then burst into laughter that sounded like this, _har, har, har_.

"Silence," said Lucius, curtly, "come to my study after breakfast, Blaise." Blaise nodded, glumly, pouring some coffee and filling it until it sloshed over the top. With a wicked grin, Hermione filled thought about how the day was already looking up.

After breakfast, the non-Malfoy members bid their goodbyes to everyone, including Hermione, before heading home. That left only Hermione, Blaise and the Malfoys. Not her favorite group of people at the moment. Well, Lucius and Narcissa were all right. Hermione was heading to the library when she heard moaning from a room down the hall. She rushed over to the door, and pulled it open without thinking. Blaise was on the ground with Lucius standing above him. This was obviously the punishment for being late to breakfast. Hermione stood frozen to the doorway,

"Sorry, sir, I didn't know that—"

"Get in here, you wretched girl." snarled Lucius, beckoning her in angrily. _What have I gotten myself into? _Hermione thought, as she dutifully walked into the room, "Don't enter rooms you aren't supposed to, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"_Crucio_." he said, perfectly calm. Hermione had only had a bit of experience since arriving, usually from Malfoy when he got angry and needed someone to take it out on. But Lucius' Crucio seemed about ten times stronger. She wasn't going to scream, she knew better then that. Instead, she braced her feet to the floor, clamped her jaw shut and kept her eyes focused on Lucius' steely blue ones. The pain was indescribable, of course, but she knew how respected she'd be if she made through it without screaming, fainting or falling down. She kept that thought until about three quarters of the way through, when it felt like her lungs burst and she fell down and let out a small scream. It didn't matter. Lucius still looked kind of impressed. Hermione was sure Blaise would have too if he wasn't almost unconscious.

So to keep the impressed man alert, she stood up right away, only wobbling for about a moment before stopping. She looked him right in the eyes.

"You lasted almost the longest," he told her, "beaten only by Bellatrix and myself. Very good. You may go, but you've been warned about not walking into rooms."

"Yes I have sir," said Hermione, softly, speaking without moving her mouth much, so he wouldn't see the blood she extracted from biting down too hard. As she exited the room, she spit the blood out and wiped her mouth. She didn't see Malfoy until it was too late. He was leaning against a nearby wall.

"So you got tortured too, huh? Well then, I should have come earlier. What'd you do? Faint? Black out? Scream and beg for mercy? Give me the _exact_ details, Granger," taunted Malfoy, pushing himself off the wall with his shoulder.

"You really want to know?" asked Hermione, innocently.

"Of course. I'd love to know how bad you di—"

"I stayed standing and silent until almost the end. Better than everyone, _including_ you, except your father and Bellatrix. If you don't believe me, then—"

"Undoubtedly I don't believe you. Two weeks ago you could barely _live_ through it."

"Times change. Plus, really as I was saying, if you don't believe me ask—"

"My father. Yes, I'm not going to because I'll know what the answer'll be. It'll be that—"

"No it won't. I don't lie, Malfoy. I'm not that pathet—"

"Of course you lie, Granger. _Everyone_ li—"

"Well then, I guess I'm not everyone—"

"Don't go spouting that 'I'm better than everyone else' shit right now, Granger. I am _not_ in the—"

"I'm not _spouting_ anything. Simply, I am stating the solid tru—"

"No one tells the truth around here. Again, this isn't the—"

"Order? Obviously it's not. If it was I'd be running from here instead. Which I'm not doing, as you can see—"

"Get over the whole, I was so misunderstood story Granger, _everyone_ is tired of it."

"I don't care about anyone except—"

"Yourself? You are more selfish than I thou—"

"_I'm _selfish? _You_ can't stand anything not going your w—"

"BECAUSE IT'S MY HOUSE!"

"The whole world is _not_ your house."

"Actually," he sneered, "it I—"

"Do _not _finish that thought, Malfoy. I mean—"

"It is," he said, "don't be jealous because I can have whatever I want and you are just the worthless woman in the—"

"Prophecy? I doubt that makes me worthless. You'll be sorry you were cruel to me one day, Malfoy. And if you aren't. I'll make you sorry myself." With that Hermione walked past him. She had nothing to do but pack everything back up for her trip to the Order the next morning. She hoped she'd be a good enough actress to trick _everyone_ into thinking she wasn't up to anything. On second thought...no one was smart enough to know the difference.

After packing, which only took about ten minutes, Hermione was left with nothing to do. She had read a lot of the books in the library, but didn't really feel like learning right now. This was her last day of freedom before going back to the Order headquarters. So what should she do? After loitering around her room, she went to go and talk to Bellatrix. After all, she _was, _it seemed, one of the other ones who had beaten Hermione at anything, except the Gladius nex curse, of course.

She wasn't at the Manor, so Hermione set out looking for Narcissa instead. After all, she always had something interesting to talk about.

And she was found in the dungeons, making potions. As soon as Hermione entered, Narcissa said,

"Hello Hermione, can you grab me some werewolf hair from that jar over there?"

"Sure." Hermione said, heading to the jar that was labeled _WEREWOLF HAIR_. Once she had gotten some, she went over to Narcissa and handed the ingredient.

"What potion are you making?" Hermione asked, intrigued.

"How about you tell me? The ingredients are werewolf hair, vampire blood, and—"

"Reconstructive Potion," stated Hermione, surely, "the potion in which the receiver's traits, appearance, personality and knowledge are changed to a completely random choice of all of the things I had stated above."

"Very good. What should be the next step?"

"After you stir in the werewolf hair and stir counter-clock wise for a minute and 37 seconds exactly you should wait until it simmers, approximately ten minutes, then—"

"_Again_, very good. And I'm done stirring. What brings you down here on such a beautiful day?"

"Well," started Hermione, "I didn't have anything else to do. I mean I've read so much and yet there's so much more, but I just don't feel like reading right now. I've already packed for tomorrow and I have nothing to do until the dinner tonight with your son and his friends."

"Yes I know all about that dinner. Well I'm pretty boring, Hermione, how about you make a potion as well? There's a book of choices over there—"

"Okay, thank you," said Hermione, quickly, rushing over to the book.

That is how Hermione spent the afternoon. She made Reviving potions, which would come in great handy for wounded after raids, and she made Thought Restorer, which was a potion that helped give people thoughts; for example if they captured someone during a raid, giving them this potion would make them get all wrong information about the Order. Then they'd let them go, and therefore the Order would get wrong information. It wasn't used too often, but it was used. So by 6:00 she had, had a great day and was ready for a life-sucking dinner with Malfoy and cronies. It was funny to think they hadn't matured at all since their school days. So to calm herself down as she dressed for dinner, she thought about how much _she_ had matured and they hadn't. _So childish_, she thought as she pulled on her black slip dress. _So juvenile_, she told herself as she put on make-up and dabbed perfume behind her ears. She was not going to have anyone be able to criticize her. Right before leaving her room, she grabbed her black cardigan as an afterthought.

Everyone met in the entry hall. The guys looked bored, if someone repulsed by Pansy's low cut green dress that ended so high that it barely covered her underwear and the top was so low it hardly covered anything.

"Took you long enough," spat Blaise.

"How could you have taken this long? You look the same as always. Like a mudblood." Malfoy sneered.

"Mud." grunted Goyle.

"Blood." finished Crabbe. Then the two erupted into laughter. _Immature_, she told herself, as she Apparated to the restaurant they were eating at. The rest of them Apparated moments later. Hermione was already pissed off, and when Malfoy walked in front of everyone else, including herself and Pansy, she said in a loud voice,

"Yes Malfoy, because ladies go first." He spun around and waited for Pansy to pass.

"Happy?"

"Maybe."

The rest of the dinner went mostly like that. Malfoy and Hermione continuously trying to spite each other. It started with Malfoy ordering for everyone, ordering chicken for everyone and a fish with the head still on it for Hermione. But she countered that by telling the waiter that it was actually Malfoy who had the fish. So the waiter switched them around. Of course, that made Malfoy angry, so when Hermione wasn't looking, he slipped salt into her water. It turned out Hermione; who had gotten her wisdom teeth out as a young child and had to gargle salt water for weeks, was used to the taste and actually finished the water. When Malfoy went up to use the bathroom, Hermione put some of his fish onto his seat. It was Pansy who countered that one, by taking off the fish and putting it in Hermione's drink. Everyone was acting so childish but it actually felt good to feel like they were back in their school days. It was only when they were finishing up their coffee and dessert when they actually remembered why they had come.

"So," started Malfoy, "any questions about your mission?" It was obvious he was only asking so that he wouldn't be punished for disobeying.

"Only one." Hermione said, "is there any other way to cover the Dark Mark except long clothing. And after all, it is summer, so wearing long sleeves all the time would be a little suspicious." Everyone was silent for a moment, Hermione was thinking about how she knew they wouldn't have a concealment charm. But then Malfoy reached across the table, and grabbed her left arm.

"Malfoy," she warned. Raising his eyebrows, he told her to take off her cardigan. Keeping her suspicions up, she slipped off her cardigan, revealing her dress. Blaise, Goyle and Crabbe all but began to salivate at her. But not Malfoy. He looked at her as he always did. Like she was an inferior mudblood. Even though the other guys thought she looked good, it's not like their opinions; which were the same as Malfoy's, would ever change as well. Malfoy turned her arm so her Dark Mark was upright. He then pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Mark.

"Concealeletio," he muttered, and the Dark Mark vanished.

"Well that answers my question." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"It's more difficult than it looks. Try to take the spell off." Malfoy dared.

"Fine," said Hermione, smirking, "Concealeletio!" Nothing happened. "Concealeletio," still nothing, "Concealeletio." And still nothing happened. With a sneer, Malfoy repeated the spell. The Dark Mark appeared.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, angry he could do something she couldn't.

"Only the person who casts the spell can take it off. That way if someone suspects you they can't make it appear."

"Well you could have told me that." Hermione said, crossly.

"What? And ruin my fun?"

With that, the dinner came to a close. Hermione Apparated right into her bedroom, where she fell, exhausted, onto her bed. Without even changing into her pajamas or slipping under the covers, she fell asleep. The next day was a big one after all.

She woke up at 8:30AM. Bellatrix had told her she was leaving at 10:00AM, and breakfast was to start at 9:00AM. So, hurriedly, Hermione got up and took a quick shower. She dressed in what she would usually wear at the order, jeans, a polo and sneakers. Next she _Vultus change_d her hair back to its normal bushy self. Looking in the mirror, she saw the woman she hadn't seen in two weeks. Sneering, she levitated her trunk and began to head downstairs.

After dropping her trunk off by the door, she headed into the dining room. Everyone was there but she knew it didn't matter that she was late. She was preparing for her mission after all. As Hermione sat down, people began eating. Hermione, who knew she needed her strength to act, took exactly what Bellatrix had. After all, Bellatrix was the one who Hermione could learn something from.

The hour-long breakfast came to a close, and people were coming up to Hermione to wish her luck, and some to give her tips. Lucius and Malfoy came up last.

"Draco will be performing the Concealment charm on your Mark so that if you feel like looking at your Mark, you can't because you'll never know when someone is watching. You were gone for a while and during the time of the Weasley wife's death, which might seem suspicious. We don't want anyone to see your Dark Mark."

"Yes, sir."

"And good luck."

"Thank you sir." With that Mr. Malfoy walked away, leaving Hermione alone with Malfoy.

"So we'll be seeing you every Thursday night at 11:00PM at Emerald Park, okay? And don't be late, we can't stay long."

"Right."

"Now give me your arm." He ordered. Hermione turned her left arm so her Mark was facing up and Draco put his wand to it and stated the spell.

"Good luck, then, Granger." Draco said, nonchalantly, no emotions showing on his face as he spoke. "Don't get caught."

"I won't." Hermione promised, but Malfoy had already walked off. Bellatrix came up to her a moment later.

"We'll be seeing you at the meetings then. There's something we need to tell you at the next one."

"Alright, ma'am."

"Good luck," she said, gracing Hermione with what looked like a forced smile. She then walked off. Hermione was left standing alone for a few minutes, until Lucius walked up to her.

"It's time."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Also redone.


	5. Time is a Funny Thing

Chapter Five

Hermione, a person who was rarely very nervous since she succeeded at most things, was a jittery mess. At least she was keeping it inside. _Time,_ she thought when she heard the word spoken by the older Malfoy, _a funny thing. Because you never really know how much of it you have. You could be jumping around in a field of flowers then __BAM! You're dead. Then you're out of _time_. Ha, ha, ha aren't I amusing? Wait a minute, am I asking myself whether or not I was amusing...in my own thoughts? First sign of insanity, Hermione, CUT IT OUT! _She had seemingly forgotten the younger Malfoy's habits of peeking into her thoughts without her knowing. Merlin, she hated that. _Finally the mudblood is nervous about something. Hmm...afraid you won't succeed this go-around?_ Draco taunted, in her mind. _I am NOT having this conversation with you right now, Malfoy_. She thought, sternly, trying to listen to what Lucius was saying. _We aren't really having a conversation, because really...we aren't talking_. Hermione decided to ignore that and just focus fully on what Mr. Malfoy was saying.

"Whatever you do, don't let your guard down. I know what you're thinking; they'd never suspect YOU of converting to us, but they might be more onto you than you know. Keep your mind empty and your mouth SHUT! And watch your drink. We don't want even a single drop of truth potion in your Butterbeer."

"Yes, sir." Hermione said, dutifully, agreeing with every word said.

"Now off with you." Lucius said, "We'll see you in three weeks at 6:00PM, alright? The time of the next meeting."

"Yes, I'll see you all then, sir."

"Good luck, again, Hermione."

"Thank you." Hermione said, graciously, and suddenly she felt as though she needed it. These people had known her FOREVER, they could see through her lies. She knew they would. They would and they could and then what would happen? She'd be confronted and then captured. Well, since she was already there she wouldn't really be _captured_ per say but she would be locked in the room for prisoners. She'd be interrogated and tortured, in most probability, and then she'd die. She'd die or be forced to become a double agent. And really, she'd rather _die_ than go back to helping the ones that never helped her in return. It was a lose-lose situation, really. She'd be discovered and die, and the Death Eaters would lose their spy among the younger ones. She should have known someone was in her thoughts. _With that attitude, you _will_ be discovered in a heartbeat_, came the booming voice of Draco Malfoy. _Okay, listen here. Stand straight_, she did, _shoulders back,_ she yielded,_ chin up_, she raised her chin, _and you'll be fine. Just be calm, be ... like your normal mudblood self and they won't notice the difference._ Closing her eyes for a moment, she let the words sink in, _they won't notice the difference, they won't notice the difference, they won't notice the difference_. She realized the words were true. She doubted anyone in the Order would notice if she had gotten tattoos all over her body. Rolling her eyes at the thought, she braced herself, closed her eyes and no one from the Dark Side would see her for three weeks, except those who would meet her at a park known as Emerald.

She first stopped off at a store; where she quickly bought cheap presents for all her friends, implanting a little spell on them to...hear all that was happening around the present. Once purchased, she Apparated again. This time, to a location she felt was far more formidable.

When she opened her eyes she was in front of the place she dreaded. The Order Headquarters. The place she thought she would never have to return to. Yet here she was. Coming back. _For the good of the Death Eaters_, she told herself as she headed up to the door. Taking a deep breath she pulled it open, then peered through the doorway. No one was in the entry hall. That was good...now she just had to make it upstairs...she wanted The New Golden Trio (A.K.A. Harry, Ron and Ginny) to be the first ones to know she was back. She wanted it to be _them _that told her of their loss. Hmpf...like Mrs. Weasley should be considered a loss. _Bad Hermione_, she scolded, _open mind starting now. If anyone were to read your thoughts...RIGHT NOW, you'd be doomed before you began. _So with new resolve, she headed up the stairs, being careful for the squeaks in some of them. She knew the way by heart, and she found herself entering Harry and Ron's room without knocking. Before entering completely, she peered in.

The three were indeed inside, and upon hearing the door open, they'd turned to see who had entered. All three of them looked awful; Ginny had huge bags under her eyes which were bloodshot and she already looked a lot thinner, Ron's hair looked unkempt (like that was anything new) and dirty and Harry looked like if you poked him with a pinky finger, he'd fall down. _Mental note of that_, she thought, but ended the thought there. She was in the company of the Order now, and her thoughts needed to be kept in check. After all, her mind being able to be read was one downfall of being a witch. As Muggles, all you had to worry about was slipping up _yourself_ but as a witch all you had to do was _think_ something revealing while someone was in your head and everything was over.

"Hi everyone?" Hermione started, feigning sadness and regret by biting her lip and looking at the floor.

"Hey Hermione, come in. You've missed a lot while you were gone," said Harry. His voice was cold. Hmm...was he suspicious? Hermione dutifully entered the room, closed the door behind her and walked in what she hoped looked like a bit of fear and worry.

"Come sit," said Ginny, gesturing to the spot next to her. Hermione did, then she spoke,

"Look, I know you've got something important to say, but nothing could be more important," she had to pretend like she thought nothing bad had happened, "then what I have to say right now." The three looked at each other. "I am _so_ sorry about that day. You know, when I started to yell at you all. I don't know what I was thinking, you see I'd just done in all nighter and," she paused just long enough to add it a fake sniffle, "I was just tired and frustrated on not getting enough information for you all. I knew I could have done better and I was just mad, mostly at myself, for not working harder," she stopped, and added in a moment of silence with her eyes closed, as if she was thinking hard, "I knew you all deserved better information and I hated myself for not staying up longer. For not starting researching earlier...for not looking faster. But I _knew_, I just KNEW that it wasn't enough. And I am _so_, internally for the deep depths of my heart sorry, that I disappointed you." Just from looking at their faces, she knew she had done well. She wanted to grin but suppressed it. The three of them looked at each other, then her, and then back. Each one of them smiled. It wasn't a hug, a kiss on the cheek, a comforting word, but it _was_ a start. Hermione would take what she could get.

"Now what was it that you had to tell me?" Hermione asked, feigning innocence. That sure wiped the smiles off their faces.

"Hermione," started Harry, "while you were gone—"

"Some jackass killed my MOTHER!" interrupted Ron, standing up as his face grew red, "Even if you're back and everything is back to normal, it's _not_. And I want to know something RIGHT NOW!"

"Ron," Hermione said, "I'd tell you anything. What do you want to know?"

"After she...she died we called you at your parents' house. They said you weren't there. That you hadn't been there. If you weren't there, and you weren't here. _Where were you_?" Harry and Ginny were exchanging glances that stated they were speaking without words, and not the reading the others thought thing, just the we're in love so I know what you're saying and you don't even have to say it thing. Then Ginny glanced at Hermione and smiled, signaling that she was sorry Ron had to make something into an argument already. But Hermione could tell she wanted to know as well.

"Well," _Hermione you have to think fast, and go with it. They better believe you or...or...or there'll be hell to pay_, "you see...I didn't want it to come out this way..."

"Spit it out," said Ron, rudely.

"There's this guy..." _Yes, Hermione, keep going I have a feeling this'll be good_, "We've been seeing each other and well...we had just got into a fight and I had to see him. I guess that might have been another contributing factor to when I exploded," _because you were acting like I was a time bomb_, "and...well I haven't told you about him...well...because I didn't want to jinx anything." Ginny smiled understandingly, she was on the road to forgiveness a lot faster than the other two. The two she needed the most to forgive her. After all, Ginny would die soon. A pang went through her heart for a moment, just that moment when she realized the girl who was going to forgive her was going to be killed probably by her or at least she'd be apart of the planning. But the second she remembered what she had done to her, what they all had done to her, she forgot any sympathies that had been going through her heart. _Hermione Granger you can NOT let them get to you. Let's just hear how they bought that little lie, shall we_? She told herself, looking at Harry, who had spoken little.

"Well, I guess we can't really yell at you for that. Even though I wish you would have told us about him." Ron said, glancing at Harry, he probably had also realized his friend's lack of words. _Phew_.

"I've got to go put together the meeting for tonight." said Harry, "Good to have you back, Hermione. No one researches as well as you." Hermione had to clamp her jaws together to keep from saying, _well you take that researching and shove it up your ass, Potter, because I'm DONE!_ What good would that do the Death Eaters? Hermione realized that however hard she tried to clear her mind, thoughts about the Death Eaters kept coming back. So she thought up a code name for them. The dance teachers. That way, by any chance, they got into her mind, she could say she and her boyfriend had began taking them. She could think up lies like the best of them. So as she watched Harry leave the room, she remembered about having to seduce a man to get into the high level meetings. After all, even RON AND GINNY weren't allowed in those. And Harry was only allowed in since he was the new leader. _New leader my ass_, thought Hermione, before she could stop herself. She really needed to stop with those comments. Taking a deep breath she asked the question that might give her a bit of information,

"What's the matter with Harry?"

All was silent for a moment,

"Well," started Ginny, "ever since...mum died she's been like that. We reckon he blames himself. Thought I think it was probably just a kill for fun. Knowing those ass-wipe Death Eaters, it was one of the Malfoys or that Bellatrix. Merlin knows how much pain she had already caused him, with Sirius and all."

"I think I'm going to go and talk to him." Hermione stated, _try and get some information out of the little bugger_.

"Good luck. Maybe you'll get through to him." Ginny said, hopefully. With an assuring smile that screamed, I'M THE GOOD HERMIONE, TRUST ME! Hermione assured,

"I'll try my hardest, Gin, and you know just how hard my hardest is."

"Yes, yes, we all do." Ron said, "GO QUICK! He's driving me mad. He's more grief ridden than me and I'm the son unless of course mum was lying to me—" he started in on this crazy story about how he was mixed up at birth and that his real mum was probably living in the Philippines or something as Hermione left the room. After all they were the little league and Potter was the championship. If he forgave her, hopefully things would go back to when they all told each other everything and then she'd have some real good information. She strived on becoming a better Death Eater than Malfoy Jr. in a shorter time and with her being apart of a prophecy, well hopefully, she was well on her way.

The process was slow on Harry. Apparently, according to Ginny, he just couldn't open up right now. Not to say Hermione hadn't tried her very best. Once she had talked to Harry, they all went downstairs to tell the Order that Hermione Granger was back and ready for more and more and more research (after research, after research, after research). And Hermione was determined not to complain, even though she'd already done loads of more important stuff for the Death Eaters; such as making potions that would help a lot. She wasn't worthless to them. The Order didn't know what they were missing.

Yawning, Hermione stretched and tried to unknot the ache in her neck caused by reading a book for seven hours straight. A book for...of course...the researching that had been once again bestowed on her. It was Thursday before she knew it and she had gained a small chunk of information so at least all her _researching_ hadn't been for nothing. Currently it was three until eleven, but she couldn't leave just yet because she still heard voices coming from somewhere in the headquarters, nearby. It wasn't until seven after that she managed to get out of the house and Apparated to Emerald Park.

They were still there. She could tell they were mad just by looking at them; Malfoy's sneer, Pansy's distaste, Goyle and Crabbe's half-witted insults and Blaise's short puffs of breath.

"You're—" started Malfoy.

"late, I know. Don't blame me, blame the person who would _not_ go to sleep. I swear it was like—"

"We don't care. What have you got?" Pansy asked. And Hermione listed every bit of information she had gathered,

"Potter's looking really weak right now, the whole Order is acting a bit sluggish and messed up by the lard's death and—"

"And how have you come on seducing a man?" asked Blaise, his eyes sparkling at the thought of Hermione kissing a guy, thirty, forty years older than herself. Such a thing that would be greatly used to mock her later on.

"I've got my target, there's but one thing in my way."

"And what's what?"

"Not a what. A who. The girlfriend."

"Couldn't you make things simple for once and pick someone SINGLE!"

"No, because this person would all but fall apart if his girlfriend's dead body was hung out for all to see."

"Who do you want us to kill, Granger? Just spit it out." Malfoy hissed. Hermione's smile widened.

"I think you'll like this one."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Redone. I'm getting faster at this, at least.


	6. Winning the Raid

**Author's Note: **Redone also. :D

* * *

Chapter Six

Indeed it seemed they did like it, because all grinned evilly, and Malfoy said, "Bring her here. We can't go to the headquarters, so..."

"I'll be back in five minutes." Hermione promised, and headed back to the Order. In her mind she tried to remember what room her victim was in. She was lucky, she realized, that it was this night they decided to use to kill her. As the moon shined bright and full above her, she headed into the Order headquarters and up the stairs. She looked around for a moment, and then headed for a door. As soon as she entered she heard a soft snoring. The woman was in bed, and the man who was soon to be her victim as well, was not. _As I expected_, she thought, as she tiptoed over to the woman's bed. Hermione awakened the woman with a sharp poke. With a groan, she sat up,

"What in the name of Merlin, Hermione?"

"Something's wrong with Lupin. The potion was prepared wrong...or something. They asked for you to help out."

"Sure, sure. Anything for Lupin. Where are they?"

"Well when they were trying to contain him, he broke free and now he's outside. By a park with a strange name. A gem or something. Opal...diamond..."

"Emerald?"

"Yeah that was it."

"We better get going then."

"You can say that again." Hermione told her, suppressing a grin, as they headed out the door. They began to run once their feet hit the road. Soon they were nearing on Emerald Park. Hermione could see that the Death Eaters were hiding.

"We should probably split up...you check in the woods," Hermione started, figuring that's where the Death Eaters would be, "and I'll check over there, by the ravine."

"Alright," agreed the gullible woman, racing off into the woods. A moment later she heard,

"Hermione! DEATH EATERS! GO AND GET HELP!"

"NO! I'm coming in to help you!" Hermione acted, racing towards the forest. She saw a flash of green light. _Man, got to work on my running if I wan t to watch the fight. _Hermione soon reached the Death Eaters, and saw the body on the forest ground.

"She was easy. Didn't you say she was an Auror?"

"Yes. And I would have thought she'd have been harder to kill. Well whatever. What should we do now?"

"How about," started Pansy, "we beat you up a bit so it doesn't look like you weren't hurt at all. Then you can run to the Order saying the Death Eaters were attacking at a park and she told you go to and get help. Make sure you take at least five minutes so we can hang up the body."

"Fine with me." Hermione agreed. She didn't care if they wanted an excuse to beat her up. After all, she was stronger than all of them.

"So then..." Blaise transfigured a stick into a knife, "Sorry 'bout this, Granger. Or not really." He said as he pressed the knife into her skin, piercing it and making a mark. He made five identical marks around it, making it look like she was nicked while she was running.

"_Crucio_." stated Pansy. Hermione remained standing throughout the entire curse.

"Okay. How about you two," Hermione stated, pointing to Goyle and Crabbe, "carry the body. When we get close enough one of you can throw the dagger at me. Don't worry. I'll get up there soon enough that they'll be able to heal me."

"Granger," said Malfoy, "We can't risk killing you as much as I hate to say it. If you _were_ to die, the Dark Lord would kill us all. He'd torture and kill every one of us. He wouldn't care that you told us to."

"_C'mon_ it's perfect. I don't look hurt enough. Just aim it...by my shoulder—"

"And what if we were to hit your head instead, hmm? Think you'd be able to survive that?" asked Malfoy. Hermione winced inwardly, thinking of herself with a knife through her skull.

"Maybe. Fine, not by my shoulder. I'm just saying, if it's not by my shoulder you could hit an organ. And _that_ could be fatal. Do you really think you have that bad of aim?"

"No! I have great aim I just don't think we should risk it."

"I would say then aim for my leg or something but that doesn't look like you were trying hard enough. You're Death Eaters and I'm a good-girl Order member. You want to kill me, remember?"

"Right. Fine but if you die..."

"I'll personally come back from the grave to tell the Dark Lord that I told you to throw it at me." Hermione said, sarcastically.

"Let's go. I'll torture you a bit more on the way, Granger. After all, we want it to look realistic." Pansy said, obviously enjoying this.

"Alright, Pansy. Whatever you want." So as they walked, Pansy would occasionally throw a curse at her. It was just like Pansy to milk this for all it was worth. But finally the group had made it back to the sidewalk by the headquarters. And since Hermione wasn't the Secret Keeper, she couldn't reveal the headquarters, therefore the others couldn't see the house.

"Okay. Here I go," Hermione said, starting up the grass to the front door. Just then a mind-numbing pain filled the area of her left shoulder. She stumbled, then spun around,

"You could have WARNED me!" She whispered, glaring at the smirking Malfoy.

"Now what's the fun in that? Go and remember, give us at least a minute so we can hang up the body."

"Got it," muttered Hermione, heading to the door. She opened it quickly and yelled at the top of her lungs,

"HELP! EVERYONE THERE'S BEEN AN ATTACK!" She only had to wait less than a minute before Harry and Ron came bounding down the stairs, the rest of the Order right behind them.

"Hermione! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Ron babbled.

"Of course she's hurt! Don't you see the DAGGER IN HER SHOULDER?"

"Oh geez. Let's get her upstairs and into bed...c'mon now, Hermione." Ron and Harry each grabbed her by an arm and then slung her arms around their shoulders. Then they began helping her up the stairs.

It was when she was safely—healed and everything, in her bed with Ron and Harry next to her and the rest of the Order by the end of her bed that she said, "You need to help...I wasn't alone. Emerald Park..." With that, she 'fainted' and she slumped down and closed her eyes. But she could still hear them talking.

"I'm going to search her mind. We need to see who was at the battle," said Moody, and quickly Hermione blocked out everything except her running to the park with the woman, and the attack.

"There's five of them—but they're only the youngest members."

"Malfoy?" asked Harry, spitefully.

"Yes," replied Moody gravely, "we have to get to Emerald Park fast. She's good but against five...even if they are young." Hermione heard the sound of abrupt footsteps leaving the room. She could still feel a presence in the room; she assumed it was Harry and Ron. A moment later, Ron spoke, "I can't believe it..."

"I know, Ron."

"First my mum, then Hermione. And Merlin knows who was at the battle. Someone else could be dead...The Death Eaters are working fast...something good must have happened. Maybe new members..."

"Hermione's going to be _fine_ and I'm sure whoever was at the battle could take Malfoy and his thickheaded cronies. Don't worry about the Death Eaters, you know the Order is ten times better and more prepared."

"That's not even what I'm talking about."

"Then what are you talking about?" Harry asked, exasperated.

"I was mad at mum, remember? The night she died. Then Hermione...for a second I thought we couldn't trust her anymore and now she's hurt. We don't even _know_ who could be dying now..."

"It's not that hard to figure out, Ron, let's just figure out who wasn't in the room with us just now."

The room was silent for a minute. Finally, Hermione heard what she was waiting for. A scream. What happened next caused a chain reaction.

"Harry, Ron! Get down here!" came a voice that sounded scared. There was a squeak meaning they had jumped up off the bed and fast footsteps that meant they had left the room. So Hermione opened her eyes carefully and looked around. The room was empty, so she sat up and scurried over to the window. She could see the light pole in front of the Headquarters. And the first thing she saw of the body was a flash of short, pink hair. Tonks.

With a smile, Hermione thought how she would proceed with Lupin. She started downstairs, using a quick tear spell to make the tears come pouring out of her eyes. Once she opened the door she started to run. She ran past the Order looking up at the light post and she knew they were turning to look at her. She finally 'collapsed' at the end of the street, where they could still see and hear her. It was then she began sobbing. She did all the standard sobbing methods; she pulled at her hair and pounded at the ground. When she had done that she leaned forward so her forehead rested against the sidewalk. No one had come over to her yet. Thunder roared and she looked up at the sky, watched as the first drop of rain fell, hitting her on the cheek. Soon the rain mixed with her tears, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw everyone else walking inside to get out of the rain. Only one person remained: Lupin. (it was a full moon, but there was a potion Dumbledore had created before his death that made Lupin only transform a couple of months a year, but he still slept in a room in the basement the nights he might transform). He was staring up at the body and Hermione couldn't tell, but he was crying. Silent tears, unlike Hermione's fake ones. She decided even he wasn't mean enough to just leave her out her so she let out one more loud sob and then went silent. She was sure Lupin was looking at her; the problem was she didn't hear footsteps and she wasn't sure what she should do next. Without Lupin noticing, she transfigured a nearby stick into a dagger. Next she picked it up and held it like she was about to plunge it into her chest. It was then she heard loud and fast footsteps and a voice that yelled,

"Hermione, don't!" Soon Lupin was kneeling beside her. She began shivering like she was cold and crying at the same time. She had seen it before, and she knew it looked pathetic, which was exactly what she was going for. She felt an arm around her and whimpered, "Why was everyone out here, anyways?"

"Hermione? Didn't you see the body?"

"No...What body?"

"Look at the top of the light post." Hermione looked up and saw the body for the 'first time'. She gasped and faked a hiccup.

"To-tonks?"

"She was with you at the battle, right?"

"Yes, sh-she told me to ge-get help. I shouldn't have...have left her."

"No, you can't think like that. But I don't really feel like talking about this anyhow. If you didn't know... why were you crying?"

"My bo-boyfri-boyfriend told me that he chea-cheated on me. He's lea-leaving me for her. He told-he told me that I was a bookworm wh-whore."

Lupin didn't respond. He helped her up and began walking her inside, his arm still around her shoulders. With a sniffle, she looked behind her at the body one more time, smirked and laid her head down on Lupin's shoulder. She could still see Tonks' eyes—open, dead, and unfeeling.

Over the next few days, Lupin didn't leave her side. He hadn't made a move but she would have expected as much. She had to show interest in him first.

One afternoon, during a meeting when she was sitting next to Lupin, she glanced down and saw his hand resting on the table. She put her hand next to it, then moved it slightly so their hands were touching. It was simple enough to seem like an accident, and Lupin was the only one that noticed. He figured it was a mistake and moved his hand over to give them distance space. But Hermione moved her hand stealthily over so their hands were touching again. Knowing this couldn't be an accident; Lupin glanced at Hermione then put both his hands on his lap. 'Accidently,' Hermione dropped her quill, and scooted her chair out to get it. When she scooted it back in, she moved closer to Lupin's chair and waited. Soon his hand was resting at his side, and it was then she took his hand in hers. She didn't look at him, just continued listening, acting like taking his hand was an instinct, like she wasn't even aware she did it. She could feel his hand was stiff, uncomfortable for a few minutes. But she could feel it relax and he gave her hand a squeeze. Closing her eyes she tried to pretend she was secretly wishing they were alone in this room, when really she was wishing she didn't have to do this part. She stood up abruptly and said," I have to go to the lavatory, I'll be back." Before leaving she gave Lupin a knowing glance and tilted her head towards the living room. He nodded, and returned to the meeting.

Once she was sitting comfortably on one of the couches, she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse and waited. In a few minutes, the door opened and Lupin came in. He sat down next to her and the room was silent for a minute. Hermione stood up and went over so she was right in front of Lupin.

"Why did you wa—" he was interrupted by Hermione, who took this opportunity to throw herself on Lupin, pressing her lips against him. _Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, gross,_ she kept thinking, as she waited for him to respond. As she had expected, he was taken by surprise, and for a few moments, she was kissing him and he wasn't kissing her back. Finally, when he warmed up to it, he laid Hermione onto the couch, got on top of her, and began kissing her fiercely. It was the grossest thing Hermione ever had to endure. But when they were out of breath, she rolled off the couch and said, "We should...probably get back." She tried to make her voice sound like she didn't _want_ to but they'd been gone a while.

"Yes, we can—_talk_ later, right?" Lupin asked, putting emphasis on the word talk, so Hermione knew it could be talk or...or well what they were doing before. The thought made Hermione shiver inwardly.

"You go in first." Hermione told him, "I have to...do something." She straightened her blouse, and buttoned up the top buttons again. He got the hint she needed to clean herself up so no one got suspicious, and he left. Hermione hurried to the upstairs bathroom and nearly gagged. She brushed her teeth, vigorously, and then worked on her disheveled hair. When she looked 'presentable' she headed back into the meeting.

People were packing their things. Lupin strayed behind, until they were the only two people left in the room.

"What'd I miss?" Hermione asked, quietly.

"Nothing big. They're planning on raiding the Malfoy Manor tonight. So I'll be gone but I was thinking tomorrow—"

"What? The _Malfoy_ Manor? Who's going?"

"Uh...well I am—we're not really sure _exactly_ who..."

"YOU?" She knew that if Lupin went, he'd be killed and she'd have to find someone else to seduce.

"Well—yes. Why?"

"No, no, no don't go. I've got something ridiculously fun planned tonight. For just the two of us."

"Really now? Well, then maybe I can get out of it..."

"Do try," she said in her best seductress voice, "you'd be missing out on something big."

"I won't try, I _will_ get out of it. Where should we meet?"

"My room, 8:00pm. _Don't_ be late." With that she walked over, an extra flounce which made Lupin unable to wait until 8:00pm. And for Hermione it came too fast.

When she got to her room, she searched her drawers for something sexy to wear. She had to keep Lupin interested. She came across her old school uniform and smiled.

She filled up the bathtub and put in bubble bath. She was planning on having a relaxing afternoon, because she was going to have a night filled with Lupin, Lupin, Lupin and more Lupin. Hopefully he wasn't expecting her to sleep with him. Wasn't happening. The instant she felt the hot water on her skin she relaxed.

She flooed to The Leaky Cauldron, then from there flooed to the Malfoy Manor. The only person in the room was Lucius.

"Hermione, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be doing, your..._assignment_?"

"Yes, I know but I had to come and tell you something. They're planning on raiding tonight."

"That's not that big of a deal, Miss Granger. Maybe you should come with me to the dungeons where you can learn a lesson about leaving your duty—"

"Sorry to interrupt sir but they're planning on raiding _here_."

"Well why didn't you say so? I've got to get everyone prepared. You should get back, Miss Granger."

"Yes, sir."

After dinner, which ended at around 7:00-ish, Hermione ran up to her room, and got ready for her date with Lupin.

Her school uniform was small on her of course, but it was perfect for what she had planned tonight. With a flick of her wand, her bedroom became the exact replica of what the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom looked like when Lupin was teaching. The minute there was a knocking on her door, she was ready.

"Come in," she called, "and lock it behind you please, Professor."

"Professor? Why did you just—" he came in and looked at the room, then Hermione. She tried to look sultry as she stood up.

"I've been _so_ bad, Professor Lupin. I need to be punished." A look came across Lupin's face that she'd never seen before. Hermione wanted to gag.

Finally, at 10:00pm, Lupin left. Hermione quickly took off her uniform and put on pajamas. She changed her room back and brushed her teeth for five minutes. It didn't seem like long enough. Suddenly a head appeared at her fireplace. It was Malfoy.

"Granger! Get your ass over here! They're winning, they're winning the raid!"

"I can't! If anyone sees me fighting for the wrong team..."

"We don't plan on letting anyone get out alive. Come _on!_"

* * *

**Editor's Note:**

Hello!! Alrighty then, just in case you guys don't review, I am here to make sure you do!! After all, everyone loves reviews!! So anywho, how'd you all like the chapter? To tell the truth… I hadn't really read the previous five but I still loved chapter!! Tch, what'd y'all think of Lupin? Men and their one-track minds… Let's see… Review because:

1.I say so and my word is law… sort of-ish.

2.It won't take long, I know because I review for almost everything I read.

3.When she replies with happiness (the author), you'll feel good inside, knowing you made someone's day. Ack, I sound like a guidance counselor.

And now for the fun fact of the chapter:

It's illegal to bully a suicidal person. In Australia anyway. This basically means you can't raise your voice against them, call them names, play pranks and all the normal teasing you might normally do. Wow… I might almost consider going suicidal for that one perk…

"Shut up!!" someone says to you.

-insert sound of jail door slamming shut-

And so, since I gave you such a cool fact, you have to review. Equivalent exchange, kiddos.

Ta-ta my ducks!! See you all next chapter!!


	7. What was Going to Happen Now?

**Author's Note:** Redone.

* * *

Chapter Seven

So many thoughts were rushing through her head, but the first thing she thought of was: wand. She scanned the length of the room with her eyes, finally seeing her wand on her bedside table. As soon as she grabbed it she Apparated to the Malfoy Manor, wondering what she should see when she got there.

The instant she could see the entrance hall of the Malfoy Manor, she had to duck to avoid a beam of green light. Avada Kedavra. Curious, she glanced to see who the spell had hit. The caster had been none other than Malfoy Junior, and the one who the spell had hit was Fred Weasley. Without a tear shed, she went over to Malfoy Junior. He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her into a little nook in the wall.

"Okay, here's what you've missed. Since you had to keep Lupin with you, Moody came instead. He's a bloody good Auror, even if he has retired. You've got to get him out of here. That or kill him. And don't forget the meetings tomorrow. I don't think anyone would mind if you just stayed the night."

"No I'll just kill him and go back. There's an important meeting tomorrow that I think Lupin can get me into."

"Fine, Granger. Kill him." Hermione looked out of the nook to try and see where Moody was, and it wasn't very hard to find him. He—after all, was the only Order member left at the raid. Bellatrix, Crabbe Senior, and Lucius were all attacking him at the same time.

"Glacialis nex," whispered Hermione, her wand pointing in the direction of Moody. Everyone saw the ice blue bolt heading toward Moody and stopped what they were doing to see whom was doing the casting. They smirked when they saw Hermione; they knew that she could kill him in the blink of an eye with Glacialis nex. The instant the bolt hit him he became immobile, and a few moments later, he turned to face the nook, seeing Hermione with her wand pointing in his direction. His mouth dropped but he knew he couldn't be mistaken and shot aimed at her, a purplish red beam burst from the wand. She couldn't block it in time and it hit her square in the stomach and she felt like she had just been cut in half, and she felt herself falling to the ground but she couldn't stop herself. The minute she fell, her head hit the wall and she saw everything going dark. She vaguely heard Malfoy Junior yelling her name—well last name really, before she couldn't hear anything at all.

When she woke up she instantly saw a black ceiling. She tried to turn on her side but found she couldn't. The next thing she saw was a pale face with silvery blond hair staring down at her.

"Granger? Can you move?" He asked, in a bored voice. Hermione responded with a groan before trying to speak,

"No. Can _you_ help me?"

"By doing what exactly?" He asked, his tone still bored and it seemed like he didn't want to be there. _Of course he doesn't_, Hermione thought.

"I don't _know. _Something?" Hermione suggested.

"Okay, okay. Just tell me what you need I don't want to waste my time."

"I don't _know_. Isn't there something you could do to help me _move_?"

"My mom and Bellatrix are coming. We don't really know what spell was thrown at you. If they can't figure it out..."

"We're here, we're here. Draco, wait outside. We might have to check her body for marks or distinguishable signs that might help us figure out what's wrong."

With a nod, Malfoy Junior left the room. _Distinguishable signs_, wondered Hermione as Bellatrix and Narcissa walked over and then next moment she saw them looking down at her.

"Hermione? I need you to tell me everything about the spell that hit you, okay?"

"Right. Uh...he didn't verbally say any spell, but the beam was purplish red..."

Questions went on until Bellatrix's eyes lit up, or as much as her eyes could light up anyways and quickly pointed her wand at Hermione's stomach and said a spell so fast Hermione couldn't make out the words.

"Just wait a few minutes and you should be able to move again." Narcissa told her, and began walking away.

"Didn't you say there's a meeting for the Order tomorrow, Hermione?" asked Bellatrix, as she paused at the door.

"Yeah, it's high-level and supposed to be _really _important. I think I can get Lupin to get me in."

"Good then you better leave right when you can move." Narcissa told her.

"I plan on it," promised Hermione, trying to move. Finally after a few minutes she succeeded in sitting up and instantly Apparated to her bedroom.

Just to her luck, it was empty and she quickly got into bed and fell asleep. The nightmare that haunted her was constant. It was Ginny, with the Dark Mark, telling the Order all of the secrets of the Death Eaters.

She woke with a start at 10:26am. The meeting was starting in four minutes and she still had to convince Lupin to let her come. Quickly, she changed into jeans and a tee shirt and ran to find Lupin.

He was sitting in the living room with a bunch of others who could go in the meeting. Ginny was among them. She'd have to find out why a bit later. Like when she was allowed in the meeting. Also known as, as soon as she could convince Lupin.

"Remus, could I borrow you for a second?" She asked, adding a wink for effect, and she made sure Harry and Ginny saw it. Nodding, he got up and followed her out of the room. Glancing behind her she saw Harry get up to follow them. _Perfect_, Hermione thought, _time for them all to know_. Once they were in the hallway, she pushed Lupin up against the wall and began to kiss him. That's when Harry came in.

"Hermione! Professor Lupin!" _Funny that Harry still calls Professor Lupin, Professor Lupin. So what if I do too_.

"Harry! Uh we were just..."

"Yeah, no need to explain to me..." Harry said, kind of embarrassed sounding. He shuffled out of the room.

"Remus, can I ask you a _huge_ favor?"

"Yes?"

"You know this meeting today?" Lupin nodded, "Do you think you could let me join it?"

"Oh I don't know Hermione, it's high-leveled. People might not want—"

"I saw Ginny in there, she's younger than I am."

"I guess that's true."

"And it could be something I could help with. You know, researching or something."

"You bring up a lot of good points, Hermione. I guess you should come to these meetings. Come, it's going to start."

"Okay. Thanks Remus."

"Everyone, come sit down. This meeting is really important," started Harry. The entire group came into the dining room and sat down at whatever chair they could. Everyone became silent and looked at Harry. Ginny was standing next to him, "As you know, there is at least one spy spying on us for the Order. We're trying to find out who it is, but the thing we do know is that they're not in this room. That's why at this meeting we're introducing a plan. A very good plan at that, in which Ginny will be playing the main part. We will be sending her to the Death Eaters," everyone gasped, "And she will be telling them that she hates everyone in the Order now. She will tell them that I cheated on her with Hermione. She will be saying that no one cares about her mum's death. Anything that'll make them believe she doesn't like us anymore." _Right, don't apologize that you're using me as a tool for your stupid plan. Which by the way won't WORK because you bet I'll be telling the Death Eaters and they'll think of something. You'll all be dead and all because stupid Lupin let me into this meeting. I'm persuasive I guess_, "She will be staying there every day, every week, sneaking away for meetings every once in a while and reporting to us weekly for small updates," _Ironic, that's about the same thing I'm doing only for the other team, _"She's leaving tomorrow. And she'll also be trying to seduce Malfoy." That's when it hit Hermione; she'd just gotten an owl saying she'd have to stay at the Malfoy Manor for the next couple of weeks. How could she do that if Ginny was there? She'd know it was Hermione right away and it'd ruin everything. _Not good._ _Wait, seduce Malfoy_? _Wait until he hears this_. Once Harry stopped talking, everyone began to chatter, saying things like, it's too dangerous, why doesn't Hermione go no one cares— (that one of course whispered when they remembered Hermione was in the room), and things like, why don't we just go in and kill them all? Hermione excused herself and walked to her room in a daze. How was this going to work?

* * *

The next day at 11:00AM, Hermione told everyone she was going out to visit her cousins in Italy for a couple of weeks. Ginny wasn't due to leave until 1:00PM, which gave them plenty of time to think of a plan. The moment she Apparated she ran to the dining room where everyone was just about to start the meeting. Voldemort sat at the head of the table, and obviously no one could be mad about her being late. It might have ruined her cover.

"Now that Hermione is here we can start. And while we're on the topic, any big news to report, Hermione?"

"Very, my Lord. You know Ginny Weasley?"

"Not personally," he said, crossly.

"Okay well I was just in an Order meeting, as everyone knows and I found out their latest plan. They're sending her here, _today_ to become a Death Eater and have her spy for them."

"This _is_ big news. What do you suppose we do, my Lord?" Lucius stated.

"Very large news indeed, Lucius. Well, Hermione, you were asked to stay here for a few weeks, right?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"It's important that you do so, so how should we keep both of you here at the same time..."

"You're planning on letting Weaslette in?" asked Malfoy Junior.

"Yes, I think it would be wise to feed her false information, don't you agree, Draco?"

"A very smart plan, sir."

Everyone was silent for a minute. It was Lucius Malfoy who spoke next, "I've got an idea, my Lord."

"Speak it, Lucius."

"What if we change Hermione's appearance, and name. We'll have her pretend...to be my son's wife."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Malfoy Junior and Hermione at the same time.

"A perfect plan. Hermione, please come here." Hermione stood up, steadying her wobbly feet and went towards her Lord. When she reached him, she bowed, then waited.

"You shall be called...Belle for the next few weeks. We'll make you...French, shall we? Okay." He pointed his wand at her and tapped her twice. He looked at her, accepting his work, then bidding her to sit down, "For the next few weeks you will stay in Draco's quarters. You will go everywhere with him, just like a wife should. You will do what he says and you _will_ be affectionate with him in public. We've got to convince this Ginny girl that you two are in love." Hermione's head was spinning but she could still see Malfoy's smirk. _His quarters...everywhere with him...do what he says...affectionate it public_, she repeated. _It won't be that bad, _she told herself, _only in public and I don't have to do what he says in private. Ew being anywhere private with Malfoy sounds gross and wrong_. _Torture, this is going to be worse than torture._

"Harry also instructed her to seduce Draco, and I'm not sure that him being 'married' will stop her."

"I'm sure Draco knows that he will stop her and tell her he's flattered but married or something of the sort. With that being said, does anyone else have anything to report?"

The meeting went on—boring stuff compared to the 'show starter'. Hermione Granger had to pretend to be Belle Malfoy for two weeks-four weeks. She had not even looked at the mirror to see what she looked like and wasn't able to until the end of the meeting. She had arched and plucked eyebrows framing violet eyes and the same silvery blond hair as every Malfoy had—hers currently in a messy bun. She was tall and slender, like a model and wore clothes that looked very expensive. She looked like the exact version of what a Malfoy would marry.

At exactly 1:00pm, there was a knock on the door. Ginny Weasley had arrived. The thing was...what was going to happen now?

* * *

**EDITOR"S NOTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE:**

Ooh, Dun Dun Dun!! The drama, the tension!! What will happen now indeed!! Moohahahaha, I guess you'll just have to wait until Thanksgiving, won't you? Because Morgan **will** have a new chapter by Thanksgiving, **won't she? **I don't care what you people say, I am soooooo not pressuring her into this. And you guys aren't either, are you? You aren't going to tell her in her reviews that she **had better have the new chapter by Thanksgiving,** are you? No of course not, what am I thinking? But she will of course, all of her own free will and because we all know that's the amazing sort of person she is. But just in case, I'm going to reinforce this:

You will not, under any circumstances, **threaten her at flame point to update by Thanksgiving.** Neither will you review to tell her to, right?

Heheheheheheh… Now, Fun fact!! Well, fun rumor actually.

Supposedly, North Korea does not actually have any nuclear bombs. Why? Because, China, Russia, and Japan ran air tests and stuff and found no radiation whatsoever. Not to mention that North Korea is too small with too limited resources to make any nukes. Final reason for argument: They can't. Because the crazy anime and manga fans wouldn't let them. After all, they could hurt Japan or South Korea. That's a no-no. Not to mention, it they hurt China, where would you get incense? Where would you get cheap carnival toys? Where would you get amazing asian candy? Where would you get con-men and fake Coach or Luis Vuitton? Fake Gucci? Where would you get black market DVD's like the third Pirates of the Caribbean, which is already out in China but not America? Do you people see my point here?

Ah you people have some nerve to read that and not even consider reviewing!! Get back here and don't tell Morgan to update by Thanksgiving!!


	8. Darling

**Author's Note:** Redone. This is getting easy.

* * *

Chapter Eight

When the door opened, bright-eyed and red-haired Ginny Weasley came into view. Belle was attached to Draco Malfoy's arm. Of course, seeing as the Death Eaters had to act like they thought she was still with the Order, they had to attack her. Stunning spells flew in her direction and she lay unconscious only a few moments later.

"Goyle, bring her into the dungeons, chain her up. We'll be down in a moment." Lucius told them, "I'll get the Dark Lord, and meet you all down there." With a nod, everyone followed Goyle down to the dungeons. Belle and Draco kept to the front of the group, so if Ginny were to become conscious before she was chained up, they would be the first people she saw. But she didn't wake, not until all of the Death Eaters were crowded around a wall, in which Ginny was chained to. They were waiting for the arrival of the Dark Lord and Lucius. The girl was prodded by the single men, and jeered at. 'Too bad she's not going to be prisoner or she'd be a fun toy to break,' shouted a male from the back.

"Enough," hissed a voice from the stairs. Everyone spun to face the door and saw the Dark Lord heading toward the pack. "She's arrived has she? Let's see what she's got to say." Pointing the wand at Ginny and woke her. Her eyes fluttered and she stirred.

"Wake up, girl." drawled Lucius, prodding her with his wand tip. Her eyes shot open. Belle watched this in amusement, and wondered what was going to happen next.

"Wha-what am I doing cha-chained up?" Ginny asked in a stutter. _Weak_, was the first thing that came to Belle's mind.

"Wha-what are you doing cha-chained up?" mocked the Dark Lord, walked right up next to her, "You're one of the Order, that's what you're doing chained up. Harry Potter's girlfriend if I wanted to be more exact," he turned to face the Death Eaters, "Oh the things we could do to her to make Potter come running. Tell me, Miss Weasley, why shouldn't we torture and kill you right now?"

"I'm not his girlfriend," she said, her confidence returning.

"No? Hmm...all my spies say otherwise. You _are_ his girlfriend. Don't lie to me." He hissed, "Crucio." Screams echoed throughout the dungeons. "Why are you _here_, idiot girl?"

"I'm here," she said, her voice only quivering a little, "to join the Death Eaters." The Dark Lord let out a laugh that sounded like a bark and said, "'I'm here to join the Death Eaters," he mocked her in a high-pitched voice that didn't fit him at all, "The day you join the Death Eaters is the day—"

"That Harry Potter cheats on me with Hermione Granger." Ginny spat out. Some cast glances in Belle's direction, she glared them away with her eyes.

"Don't interrupt me. Crucio," as Ginny was screaming, Draco whispered in her ear, "This blows, Granger, but we've got to make this work. Pretend like I just whispered something really romantic. And just let me kiss you on the cheek, okay? Believe me when I say I don't want to be doing this." Belle nodded, and smiled like the most romantic thing in the world had been whispered sweetly in her ear. He moved his lips to her cheek and kissed her softly. Just enough to catch the Dark Lord's attention, purposely. It was funny the careful thought-out planning where everything was planned down to the very last detail. They didn't want Ginny's attention, they wanted the Dark Lord's, because they knew that he knew to make a big deal out of them being romantic in front of them.

"Now, now," the Dark Lord scolded, "Save the affection for later, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy." _Smooth_, thought Belle, as she watched Ginny glanced over at them. She couldn't have looked at a better time, Draco's arm was around her waist and her head was resting on his arm. Her eyes widened and she examined the girl, "Where were we? Right, you were telling me why you are here."

"I'm here because Harry Potter cheated on me with Hermione Granger—one used to be my boyfriend and one used to be my best friend."

"Which one was which I wonder, that Granger was always a cow." Draco called out. _Nice touch, nice tou—hey_. Belle attempted to go into his brain like he had done many times to her. _Was that necessary_, she asked him. _Yes, and it was funny._ Belle wanted to roll her eyes, _Too funny, you want her to be scared remember? Watch and learn_.

"Then you go shopping or eat ice cream," said Belle in a sharp, mocking tone, "That's not a reason to join us." She looked triumphantly at Draco.

"Good point, Mrs. Malfoy," said the Dark Lord, "She's right, Miss Weasley, that's not a very good reason at all. We don't just let anyone off the street join the Death Eaters, Miss Weasley. Especially not an Order member."

"I'm not in the Order anymore. No one listens to me. No one respects me..." _Lying bitch_, she couldn't help but think, _no one listens or respects _me! "And most of all, I can't stand being in the same place as that loser Potter anymore. He's dead to me."

"Yes, but why should we believe anything you tell us. You could be trying to trick us and become a spy for the Order."

"I would _never_ do that." Ginny promised.

"Promises are seldom kept and truths are seldom told, Miss Weasley. Remember that."

"I will, my Lord."

"I'm not your Lord, yet, Miss Weasley." Belle tried once again to get into Draco's mind, _We should probably give her some fake information about how people get in, like there's no training and I don't know. We don't want to give anything away that could be useful_.

_I know. I'm not an idiot, Granger. The Dark Lord will figure it out. Our job right now is convincing Weaselette that we're a happily married couple. I'm going to kiss you again._

_Gross, but thanks for the warning. Where? Cheek, forehead, lips...?_

_Neck._

_Neck?_

_Yes._

_You're very strange._

_Trust me._

_Trust you? Hmph...not a smart plan._

_Just TRUST ME!_

_I'll think about it_, she retorted in his mind. He pulled her near him and kissed her on the neck, she moaned quietly. Not because she enjoyed it. NO! Obviously not. They were acting. She was...and he was...no. Not because she enjoyed it.

"If you're married, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, where are your rings?" _Rings! Damn how did we forget that_? She pushed her way into Draco's mind, _What are we going to do?_

_Go with me._

_Go with you?_

_Yes._

_That's just like trust you._

_Yes I know._

_But...that's not fair._

_What's not fair?_

_Just what's your plan?_

_I said go with me._

_But what does that mean?_

_Just go with it._

_With what?_

_Stop talking to me in my mind and just see what happens and GO WITH IT!_

_Got it._

"Our rings, Weaselette?" snarled Malfoy. He stalked up to her. Belle saw the Dark Lord looking kind of curious about how they were going to get out of this one. "You're chained to a wall, do you have any _idea_ what I could do to you for talking back to me and my wife. Belle," he motioned for her to come over to him. She walked over the way she thought a Malfoy woman should walk, with poise, elegant and confidence coming out their asses. The moment she reached him, he slung his arm around her waist and pushed his way into her mind, _I'm going to put my wand behind us, okay? Then produce two rings, all you have to do is distract her. Got it?_

_Yes_.

Belle could feel Draco put his wand hand behind his back. She stepped forward to distract Ginny.

"Ginny. Weasley, right? Ginny Weasley. That name sounds familiar. Weasley. Hmm...wait I've got it," she was losing Ginny's attention, who was looking at what Draco was doing, "She's the fat ass I killed a few weeks ago." That got her attention. With wide eyes, she clenched her fists and spat right in Belle's face.

"HOW DARE YOU KILL MY MOTHER!" Before Belle could blink, Ginny had used wand less magic to release herself from her chains. With a wand less 'Accio wand', she had Crabbe's wand and was shooting spell after spell in Belle's direction. The tears clouding her vision made most spells go astray. As quick as possible, Draco used his own wand to bind her again, then rushed to Belle's side (acting purposes only of course) and leaned down to her.

"Are you alright, love?" He asked her, worried. He was a good actor, she'd give him that.

"Fine. Just a bit more pissed off then I was before." At that, she stood up on shaky feet, (and was helped regain her balance by her 'husband' of course), who also handed her a ring, which she quickly slipped on without anyone noticing or without even looking at it, "For wanting to join the Death Eaters, you sure don't have it right. We usually don't _attack_ each other. Oh and you're kind of confused. We aren't going to let you join the Death Eaters if you are angry at us for killing your mum, hmmmm?"

"She's right again, Miss Weasley," started the Dark Lord, telling them to go back to the crowd with his flashing red eyes. They did as they were told and blended back in with the crowd, but they still stood in the front just to piss Ginny off with more married couple-y things. Belle didn't even realize that she was actually enjoying being with Draco, even if it was only because they were annoying someone. It was obvious to Belle that Ginny thought this was going to be a lot easier than it was turning out to be. In Ginny's brain all she had to do was tell them that Harry cheated on her and that no one understands her and that would be it. Well, that's what she gets for underestimating the Death Eaters.

"I don't know what else to tell you," Ginny admitted, "Harry Potter cheated on me with my best friend and I don't care about anyone in the Order anymore."

"Your brothers?"

"Just mourning my mum non-stop. They're even more over-protective, they won't let me go on _any_ more missions."

"Why would mourning your mother non-stop be bad?" Draco commented, "I'm sure you're doing the same."

"I'm already over it. She was just as over-protective."

"For someone who is already over it, you seemed ready to jump on Mrs. Malfoy when you found out she was the one that killed her."

"That was just instinct. I'm—sorry, Mrs. Malfoy." Belle simply sneered at her. All Belle wanted to do was get this day over with so she didn't have to pretend to be Mrs. Belle Malfoy. But she knew that if Ginny was accepted which was going to happen. The Order didn't know it but they were _helping_ the Death Eaters win.

It took two more hours to fully convince Ginny that they weren't giving her any special treatment before the Dark Lord said, "Well I'm sure everyone would agree that you, Ginny Weasley, are worthy to join our ranks. The ceremony will begin tonight, along with your task."

"Task?" inquired Ginny, looking slightly worried, "And what exactly would that consist of?" She kept up her brave front, as she heard the Dark Lord's reply, "Just something to prove you don't want to be in the Order anymore. Unchain her," he said, pointing to Crabbe, "and Bring her up to Mrs. Malfoy's old room."

"What?" Belle let out before she could stop herself. Everyone looked at her. _Damn it I stay in Malfoy's room now, so this looks really suspicious_!

"I just mean, it's a nice room, Miss Weasley. I'm sure you'll enjoy it." _Good cover_, she heard Draco's voice in her head, _you almost blew it_.

_I didn't blow anything_, Belle thought, cockily.

_Sure, you didn't_, he thought to her sarcastically.

_So this ceremony, a lot like mine_?

_Well, the task, the dinner, formal clothes. Yes, it's basically the same_.

_Good, didn't want her getting any special treatment or something_.

_Come on, we've got to get ready for the ceremony._

_It's only like...3:30, we've got _hours _left before the ceremony starts_.

_Remember, you're pretending to be a Malfoy now, Granger. Malfoy's take hours getting ready. It starts at 6:00 so we only have two and a half hours. That's not nearly enough time_.

_It's plenty for me_.

_Fine, let's go then_.

"Well, we're off to get ready for the ceremony. See you all there." Belle said, looping her arm through Draco's.

"Such a good couple," she heard someone say from behind them.

"How long have they been married?" Belle heard Ginny ask.

"About a year or so," Lucius told her, "They do everything together."

When Belle entered Draco's bedroom, she almost gasped at the size. She had thought her bedroom was spacious, but it was nothing compared to Draco's. Everything in the room was black, silver or green. The bed was so large, Belle estimated at least twenty people could sit on it comfortably, and there were two fireplaces, half a dozen leather couches, lots of rugs, its own kitchen, and three doors were off to one side. Belle went to look at where those doors led to—two were huge walk-in closets, and the other she found out, was a bathroom the size of any normal person's first floor. There was a bathtub that was the size of a swimming pool, two enormous showers that were right next to each other, the walls of the entire bathroom was mirrors, and there was a marble counter top covering one wall. A door in the back led to the toilet.

"Wow," Belle whispered in awe. She didn't know Draco was right behind her.

"Yes wow. And we've got to get ready."

"Fine, go away I'm going to take a shower."

"No I am."

"Ladies first, Malfoy."

"Then there's no way you should be going first, Granger!"

"So you're a lady then?"

"No but neither are you."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not."

"Really now?"

"Yes!"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, Granger?" Belle looked in shock at the door behind Draco.

"Oh, hello Ginny." Draco spun around in shock. Belle darted towards one of the showers, turned on the water and jumped in—clothes and all. By the time Draco turned back around, Belle had thrown her clothes out over the top of the shower.

"Damn." He muttered, but walked towards the other shower, Belle having no clue what he was doing.

Two minutes later, she heard the sound of more water. She remembered there was a shower right beside her but figured Draco wouldn't use it. Steam covered every inch of the glass shower, so she rubbed it off where the other shower was connected to see if anyone was in it. It just so happens, Draco did that at the same time. At around the same place. Belle screamed and jumped away from the part of the glass that was now see-through on both sides, and she could see Draco's smirking face.

"You pervert!" she yelled at him over the noise of the running showers.

"Hey we're married remember?" He called back, "Just take your shower, look it's already steamed back up." That was true, the portion of the shower that was clear was now back to being steamed and Belle could continue her shower peacefully and undisturbed. Belle made sure she took she shower very slowly to insure Draco would be out of the bathroom by the time she got out. She decided to wait until the water got cold, but an hour went by and it didn't. It was then she realized the shower was probably charmed to never have cold water. She opened the door slightly and reached for her towel, only to find that it wasn't there.

"Damn it, Malfoy," she yelled, "give me my towel."

"Get your own towel, Granger," said a calm voice from the direction of where the sinks were.

"That would be kind of hard considering you took it."

"No I didn't, Granger. Look on the floor." She glanced down and saw the towel. It must have fell. Belle could feel her face flushing and was glad Draco couldn't see. After grabbing the towel, she grabbed herself up and stepped out of the shower. Draco was at the counter, looking at himself in the mirror, and fixing his hair. _Conceited_, Belle thought as she head over to the sink, herself.

"I'm not conceited, Granger."

"Stop looking in my thoughts, Malfoy."

"Never." He quipped, and left the bathroom. It was then that Belle saw that Draco had provided everything she would need to wear this evening. So after she blew her hair dry, and put on her clothes, she began on her make-up, which she still thought was kind of a big time waster. She didn't see Draco leaning against the doorframe.

"There _is_ a spell that puts on make-up. I'm pretty sure Bellatrix taught you it."

"Oh, yes…," she thought of the make-up she wanted, "_Vultus change_," and it appeared. She stood up and slipped into the brown high heels on the floor. "Okay I'm ready. What time is it?"

"Five until six."

"We better get going."

"Right. You look beautiful tonight."

"What?"

"Just practicing. I'll need all my acting skills to say that truthfully." Belle glanced in the mirror, she was wearing a silky brown dress with spaghetti straps and it was pretty low cut for Belle's tastes. But she thought she looked great so who cared what Draco thought.

"Let's go." She told him.

"You can't tell me what to do, Granger."

"Neither can you Malfoy."

"Well actually—"

"Don't start, Malfoy or I'll curse you into late next month."

"Your threats mean nothing now that we're where we are."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't think it was that unclear, Granger."

"Only in your brain, Malfoy." They argued for another two minutes before heading for the door out of the bedroom. As soon as they exited, their act was on. Belle looped her arm around Draco's as they made their way downstairs. They didn't pass anyone on the way, but they still kept their act on, for fear of onlookers they couldn't see.

The moment they entered the room where the ceremony was to be taking place, they saw Narcissa and Lucius. They went over to them first.

"Draco, Belle! Right on time. The Weasley brat is just about to present her task." said Narcissa, giving them both a kiss on each cheek.

"How _is_ she doing this task, Narcissa?" Belle asked, "I mean she's a spy for the Order, right? So there's no way she'd kill anyone from it..."

"Just watch and find out, dear. This is going to be a lovely show." Narcissa promised.

"I'm going to go talk to the Dark Lord. Draco, care to join me?"

"Sure, father." He responded. Since Ginny was nowhere in sight, he didn't have to be married to Belle and didn't say goodbye to her as he walked off.

"So," Narcissa said, sitting down at the table, "Sit, sit." Belle sat down next to her, "How is this going? Pretending to be married to my son, that is."

"Well, it's going as well as expected, I suppose. It's great that he has to be nice to me in public..."

"Yes, he can be rather rude sometimes. Gets that from his father." Narcissa told her. Belle smiled and glanced over at the two, currently with Bellatrix and the Dark Lord.

"Oh look, she's here." Narcissa told her, "Come, I can't wait to see this." Belle followed Narcissa to the group forming around Ginny. The first thing she had to do was find Draco.

He was near the front, in plain sight of Ginny. The moment she made it up to him, she looped her arm through his and got up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on his cheek. He wasn't the only one who could act. She had the feeling someone was watching, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Draco's—or at least that was what it would look like to Ginny.

"What's her task, do you know?" She whispered to him.

"Well," he started in an even quieter whisper, making her have to get closer to him—score one hundred for Draco and Belle, score zero for Ginny—wait Ginny's score was one, she did attack Belle only hours before, "We want her to get a fake sense of what people have to do to get in. They're going to make her be at the will of any of the men here. The Dark Lord is going to assign her to one of them. Probably Blaise, Goyle or Crabbe. You know, they can do what they want wit—"

"Gross, I don't want to hear anymore." Belle whispered, disgusted. For a moment she felt sorry for the girl. Two seconds later, the feeling was gone. Draco smirked, as he saw Blaise looking utterly pleased.

"It's Blaise," he told her, "I'm sure of it." Finally, Belle turned her gaze to Ginny, who was wearing a ridiculously low-cut dress—not that that was anything new.

"That dress is so like her," she whispered to Draco, "She's such a slut."

"Feisty," he commented.

"Shut up," she whispered, but couldn't help but smile. They didn't know it but Ginny saw that entire conversation, she just didn't know what they said. It was then the Dark Lord spoke, "Ginny Weasley's task is this...she is assigned to a man, whom I have chosen, and she must do whatever that man wants her to do. Cook, clean, kiss, dance, anything. She can't say no, or else she isn't worthy. Blaise, come up here." Blaise went up to the Dark Lord, kissed the hem of his robe, which was just barely touching the ground, then waited, "Rise." That was what Blaise had been waiting for, and he stood up, "Ginny Weasley has been assigned to you. Do with her what you will."

"Ginny Weasley, you will meet me in my bedroom after the party. That is all." Blaise said, grinning.

"Yes, sir." Ginny replied, but Belle had known this girl for years, and she knew when Ginny Weasley was disgusted. Right now would be the perfect example.

"Then let the ceremony begin. Ginny Weasley, come up here." Ginny came up the Dark Lord and mimicked what Blaise had done, kissed the hem of the Dark Lord's robes, then waited.

"Rise," he hissed at her. She did, clumsily. She was nervous, and Belle knew it, "Ginny Weasley, are you ready to be sworn in?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then we shall begin." He told her. No one made a noise, it was almost like everyone had stopped breathing, "Do you promise to abide by no other Lord or master than the one standing before you?"

"I promise, sir." She said, her voice wavering.

"Do you promise to complete all missions to my requirements?"

"I do, sir." Belle realized how much this was like her own, down to every word that the Dark Lord spoke, and the crowd always acted the same. Silent.

"And you will accept any rewards or punishments that would be sent your way?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you accept this Dark Mark as a proof of you loyalty?"

"I do, my Lord." She said, now sounding more nervous than ever.

"Then hold out your arm." The Dark Lord ordered, "No, you dense girl. Your left arm." He pointed his wand at her forearm and muttered a spell. Belle could tell from the look on Ginny's face that she was in so much pain. It made Belle think of the pain she went through, but she knew that the pain for Ginny was probably increased tenfold because she was a spy, and everyone knew it, so the Dark Lord probably made it more painful. When he was done, the blood on her arm almost completely covered up the Dark Mark. It was then Ginny Weasley stumbled back into the crowd. The House Elves came running, trays of food in their hands.

"Darling," said Draco in a smooth voice, "Let's go and get some food now."

"Of course," she said, sweetly. They made their way to the table where the food was being served. Draco grabbed two plates and handed one to his 'wife.'

"Thank you, Draco." She said in a voice that sounded like nothing but happiness.

"No problem, babe." Usually she hated being called 'babe', but glancing behind her, she saw that Ginny was in earshot, so she simply let it go, and began getting some food.

It was when they were seated and eating that Ginny came up to Belle and said,

"Mrs. Malfoy, could I speak with you for a moment?"

"I'll be right back, Draco." Belle said. Draco got up and pulled back his 'wife's' chair. When she rose, he pulled her toward him and kissed her. Belle had been kissed by guys before, but nothing compared to this. There wasn't any fireworks but she couldn't deny he was an excellent kisser. _Ew, yes I can it's, Malfoy_! She followed Ginny out of the room.

"What is it you want, Miss Weasley?"

"I know your secret."

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**Editor's Note:**

Oooh!! God, don't you hate this girl for leaving you with cliffies like these?! And she just told me she doesn't reply to your reviews…

Lazy bum. So therefore, I'm going to do it to the best of my capacity.

Angelo Del Ghiaccio- Thanks!! You think so? I think so to, what a great concept!! Thanks for being the second reviewer!! You're very cool and I'm gonna read your stuff!! Wow… They look so interesting!!

Gwinna- I'm sure Morgan is very happy about all your compliments. And isn't this great, she's updating soon!! She used to only update once every few months but the powers of bribery far outshine anything else I've ever seen… Moohahaha how I love having a surplus of Milky Ways.

Princess.Duh.- Bad Hermiones really are great, aren't they? Especially when she ends up with Malfoy!! And I think Morgan wrote this pretty well!! Thanks for reviewing, review again?

lilpeng1- I know!! When I edited it, I was like, "Morgan!! Update soon!!" Yeah… And she did it again with an even bigger cliffie!! Oh well… You just started reading it? Well, keep on reading and reviewing because they make her work faster!! Stupid cliffies…

summer- Nah, I don't think it's a voldie x HG story, more like DM x HG. No, not Potter; someone thought it was and Morgan was like, "Oh God, the images!!" But the voldie idea isn't too bad… I wonder if she'll write one… Thanks for reviewing!!

Lilith Kayden- I love your pen name!! Sorry… Just my weird obsession with the Lilith story… You like her stories? I like them too!! And new chapters are amazing especially when she leaves everyone with a cliffie… But they make people come back for more!! Oh well, review again, hopefully she'll finish the next chapter soon!!

Coolios, done with that!! Aren't you all glad I took time out of my non-existent schedule to do that? So… Fun fact:

It's illegal to abuse potatoes in Idaho. I get a really interesting image when I hear that.

You are happily driving down a road and doing so ever so legally. Suddenly, a cop pulls you over and fines you.

"What for?!"

"Well obviously it's because you put those potatoes in the back seat, without a seat belt might I add. Can't you see they so obviously want to sit in the front? This is against the law, you're abusing the potatoes!!"

;-.- Yeah… I don't know what I was high on when I thought that….

On the other hand, you guys do realize what you have to do now if you ever want to see the resolution to this stupid cliffie, don't you? Hee hee, to tell the truth… I know because I threatened her into telling me… Review!!


	9. The Right Choice, or the Easy One

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone! All my author note's have been 'Redone' for like five chapters, so I decided to make this one longer. This chapter has been redone. Yay.

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Chapter Nine

"What are you talking about, Miss Weasley?"

"I'm talking about what I just said. I know your secret."

"Wow, how shocking. Nobody's figured it out," Belle started, "Not even myself. I don't have a big secret, Miss Weasley."

"But you do. And I know it. You don't need to hide it anymore, Mrs. Malfoy. I know you don't want to be married to your husband."

"Miss Weasley, I am _not_ hiding anything," she said, trying to get Ginny off her back, without having to say the three words that she desperately didn't want to say, "He is my husband of course I want to be married to him."

"Mrs. Malfoy, you don't need to lie. You _don't_. If you want I can help you get out of your marriage."

"You can ask anyone around, Miss Weasley, and they'll all say the same thing, that we're the perfect couple. It seems to me you might be a little bit jealous of our marriage."

"How could I be jealous of a marriage I just found out about?"

"It's happened before," came a voice from the door directly behind Belle. Before she could turn around, she felt an arm around her waist, and a moment later she felt warm lips on her cheek.

"Mr. Malfoy, I was just telling your wife that I don't think she's happy in your marriage."

"I'm sure she'd have something to say to that." Draco snapped, looking at Belle.

"Miss Weasley," she said, her voice tense and annoyed, "I am happy in my marriage and I don't know why you think I'm not."

"I don't _think_ that you aren't happy, I _know_ that you aren't happy. I _don't_ think that you want to be in this marriage."

"I _do_ want to be in this marriage. It's the marriage I'm in after all!" She protested, getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

"Well I don't believe you, Mrs. Malfoy, I do _not_ think you want to be married to him and I think you're doing an awful job at convincing me that you do."

"I am in this marriage, Miss Weasley, because I am in love with my husband. I love Draco, okay? And if you can't accept us, I'm sure the Dark Lord will have something to say about it." There, she'd said the three words she didn't want to say, and she'd even said the entire thing without looking at Draco.

Ginny had nothing to say to that, and simply nodded and turned to go back to the party.

Belle and Draco stayed silent for a moment, Belle looking at her feet.

"Well I should—" started Draco at the same time Belle said,

"Thanks for tha—" They stood in silence again.

"We should probably go back in now," Belle told him.

"Yes, and we should, you know,—"

"Oh yes that." Belle looped her arm through his as he pulled open the door. Eyes were instantly on them as they entered the room. Ginny was sitting quietly at her place, looking at her plate, and stirring around her mashed potatoes. Narcissa and Lucius were staring at the couple, gleefully, Belle didn't really know why. She was sure she'd find out soon enough anyways. She and Draco sat back down at their places, and Lucius looked at Draco and Belle both in the eyes.

"The Dark Lord wants to speak to you two in his office," Lucius told them. Belle decided, for the sake of the fact Ginny was staring straight at them, to look worried. As they stood up, Draco decided, for the sake of the fact Ginny was staring straight at them, to wrap her up in his arms and give her a reassuring kiss on the top of her head as they walked out of the room. The moment they shut the door behind them, they disconnected and began their way to the Dark Lord's office in silence. Draco was the first to speak,

"What do you think the Dark Lord wants to talk to us about?"

"Maybe it's something about the prophecy," suggested Belle "or maybe we've done something wrong..."

They were now right outside the door, and Draco knocked once before they became silent again and waited until a hiss came from the other side of the door,

"Enter."

So they did. Once they saw the Dark Lord, they kneeled, then waited until he spoke once again,

"Rise." When they were back on their feet, they were permitted to sit and then the Dark Lord began telling them why he had brought them to his office.

"Belle, Draco. I've heard from many of my followers that you two have put on quite a charade to convince Miss Weasley that you, Belle, aren't who you say you are and that, both of you, are happily married. I just invited you in here to tell you good job and to be the first to tell you that we aren't going to kill Miss Weasley _or_ give her the wrong information. We're going to convince her that she should rather be on the Dark Side."

"Does that mean, my Lord, that we'll have to pretend to be married forever?" Draco asked, disgusted.

"No, Draco, this will simply mean you'll have to keep this charade going until we're fully convinced that _we've_ fully convinced Miss Weasley. Belle, you are going to be the one to convince her of this."

"With all respects, my Lord, how am I supposed to do that?"

"Crucio," this was Belle's first time being attacked by the Dark Lord himself, and she would have to say that it was the worst. She'd been through Pansy, Draco, Lucius, and Ron, but it was nothing compared to the Dark Lord's spell work. She felt as though if she moved an inch she would shatter into a million tiny pieces, and she felt as though razor sharp knives were piercing through her flesh, and it was at least ten times worse than when Lucius had performed it on her. She couldn't hold in her scream of pain, and she blacked out until she ended up on the floor, breathing heavily without knowing how she even got to the floor. Draco was staring straight ahead, not looking at her. Belle got up quickly and sat down.

"Sorry, my Lord."

"Silence. Belle, you may go. I need to talk to your _husband_." With a nod and a curtsy, Belle walked out of the room, her legs still slightly wobbly. She was off to find Ginny. For whatever reason, the Dark Lord wanted her among his ranks.

She was still in the party, but it wasn't hard to spot out the flaming red hair.

"Miss Weasley, may I speak to you for a moment?"

"Yes, of course," she replied, getting up from her seat next to Blaise. She followed Belle out of the room and headed for an empty hallway.

"I need to speak to you of something of grave importance."

"Go on." Ginny said, looking interested. Belle had to think fast. _Well she'll never join the Death Eaters if she thinks we killed her mum. We'll start there._

"Neither I, nor any of the Death Eaters killed your mother."

"But you said—"

"Never mind what you said. I was mistaken, but we've found information stating the killer was none other than your brother, Ronald."

"WHAT? That's impossible. They would never—"

"Miss Weasley, we've gotten information that your mother had a fight with Ronald and he was deeply upset enough to kill."

"Yes, well they did have a fight but—wait a second how do you even know this?"

"We have our ways, Miss Weasley, and that's how I know that the only reason you are here is to spy for the Order."

"How do you—"

"Our ways, Miss Weasley. I could have killed you the second you stepped inside, everyone in the Order knows it and yet...they still sent you here. It's because no one would miss you if you were to die. Why else did they send you?"

"Because I was most qualified..."

"No, Miss Weasley. We have information that Harry Potter sent you here, in fact, so he could spend time with his girlfriend, Luna Lovegood."

"LOVEGOOD? You're joking. You are. You're just trying to trick me." Ginny exclaimed. Belle quickly thought up the image of Harry and Luna kissing in Headquarters, in front of everyone and no one saying a word. She then put her wand to her temple and muttered a spell.

"Accio pensieve." She soon heard the whizzing that meant the Pensieve was on its way. The minute it appeared in front of her, she put in the strand that was a memory and pulled Ginny inside.

"This memory comes from someone within the Order. Everyone saw it happen, and no one said a word."

_Harry walked in with Luna, holding hands. The entire Order was seated, waiting for orders. It was a meeting._

"_Everyone, Ginny was sent off this morning, there's no doubt she's dead by now. Finally I can announce...Luna and I are getting married." said Harry. He grabbed Luna and kissed her. _Belle looked over to see tears in Ginny's eyes. She pulled her out of the memory.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. But can't you see now? Everyone at the Order has betrayed you. Your brother killed your mum, Harry cheated on you, and everyone in the Order wants you dead. You're so much better off with us...for real."

Belle could see the look of confusion and deep thought in the girl's eyes. She knew that Ginny Weasley was breaking on the inside. She knew that the girl felt like her life was falling apart. Just one like push and she was over the edge of the cliff...a Death Eater for real with no turning back. So Belle did something that she knew Ginny thought a Death Eater would never do. She hugged her.

"I know this is hard, Ginny, but I can help you get through it. All you've got to do is make the choice. No one but me knows that you are a spy for the Order, if you choose to not join us truthfully, you must leave and I won't tell anyone that you were a spy. Or you could stay here—I'll still tell no one, and we can get revenge on the ones who have wronged you. I'll help you Ginny, every step of the way."

Everything was silent, the only thing she could hear was heavy breathing in the near distance. Someone was listening in, seeing if she was doing her job well. It was probably Draco. Soon she wouldn't have to pretend to be married to him anymore. Ginny still hadn't spoken. She was looking at Belle deeply, trying to figure out if she was lying about not telling the Death Eaters.

Five minutes passed...ten...fifteen. It was still silent. Finally, Ginny Weasley spoke, which meant she had made up her mind. Was she staying with the Death Eaters or going back to the Order? Was she going to make the right choice, or the easy one?

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**NOtE fRom tHe eDITOr, DaRLinG1357:**

Wo0t!! Ginny is going to be saved!! Or… is she? Dun Dun Dun!! Hahahaha, actually, I don't know, I'll find out tomorrow but anyway… The point is, I have to finish this quickly or certain people are going to kill me Waves to Kelsie See, I'm doing this for all you people. Be glad… Oh hey, is there anyone else reading this that I know? Courtney!! Searches some more Oh well, if you want me to acknowledge your existence, send a review our way!!

Fact: The most popular sport in nudist colonies is volleyball. Yes, I did steal that one off a shampoo bottle. So sue me!! Does your com-screen look like it gives? No? Well I don't either, so there :P. I know, I'm so mature. Oh well, anyhoo's, review, review, review and maybe she'll gift us with a longer chapter.


	10. Unbreakable Vow

**Author's Note:** This chapter has been spelling checked and what not. :D

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Chapter Ten

"Okay. I'll do it." She said, her voice faltering slightly. Shaking her head, Belle told her in a mocking tone,

"It's not that simple. You were against the Dark Side and I've got to make sure you don't go back to that again. You've got to remember...that you _hate_...the Order."

"How are you going to do that?" Ginny asked, her eyes showing only one emotion, intense anticipation. Belle smirked and pushed a strand of her silver-blond hair out of her eyes,

"We're going to do an Unbreakable Vow." Right as Belle finished the sentence, she began walking, with purpose, toward the bedroom she shared with Draco. She knew that he would be there and for the Unbreakable Vow they needed three people.

Halfway there, she heard footsteps from behind herself and Ginny. Spinning around she saw Draco Malfoy striding towards them. When he had reached the two women, he slung his arm around Belle's waist and kissed her passionately on the lips. She let out a practiced giggle and a tiny moan before Ginny cleared her throat. They broke apart, smiling quickly at each other before Belle spoke, in a voice that reeked of sweetness,

"Darling, Ginny and I need you to be our Bonder for an Unbreakable Vow."

"Of course." Draco replied before quickly entering Belle's mind, _An Unbreakable Vow, are you bloody joking?_ Belle knew her answer instantly, _just go with it, Malfoy._

_If I didn't have to pretend to be married to you I'd be sneering or narrowing my eyes or —_

_Just go with it_.

Belle took Ginny's hand in hers and Draco took out his wand and put it by their hands.

"Will you, Ginerva, stay true to the Death Eaters no matter what happens or who may try to change your mind?"

"I will," stated Ginny, watching as a thin tongue of flame came out from the wand and wound its way around their hands.

"And, if you even think of turning on the Death Eaters, will you warn us in advance?"

"I will," Ginny said, and another thin tongue came out from the wand and connected with the first.

"Finally, if you do turn against the Death Eaters, will you kill five members of the Order you deeply care about?"

"I will." With that, the third flaming tongue came out of the wand and connected with the last.

They disconnected their hands and then all was silent for a moment. Draco shot a yellow spark out of his wand and the time appeared in red numbers: 7:20pm.

"Belle,_ love_, we need to speak to the Dark Lord."

"Oh right, thanks for reminding me, Draco, _darling_." Belle shot back. Ginny didn't catch the hidden clues in their words. Their mockings of the situation they were in. The two began to walk off, with Draco's arm still wrapped around her waist.

"We'll see you back at the party, Ginny." Belle called, turning around to wave. They walked in continual silence until they were out of Ginny Weasley's earshot.

"Why are we going to see the Dark Lord?" Belle asked him, looking up at Draco Malfoy's face (obviously because they were still in Ginny's sight).

"We're going to see if you're allowed to tell Weasley that you're," he glanced behind him, then finished in a whisper, "Mudblood Granger."

"How mature." She commented, pulling away from his grip.

"Yes well it's the first time I've been able to call you that in days."

"You are and always will be an ass. Enough said."

"Enough said? Really? Does that mean you're going to stop talki—"

"I think that you're the one who needs to stop talkin—"

"Oooh nice comeback. Next time why don't you try something even _more_ sophisticated like sticks and stones will break my b—"

"We're here so you can shut up now."

"I don't think that will be happe—" he was interrupted by Belle knocking quickly and saying to Draco quickly,

"Oops, sorry hand slipped. Guess we'll have to finish this conversation later." The door opened, but no one was there. The Dark Lord was still seated at his desk.

"Mrs. and Mr. Malfoy."

"My Lord," said Draco at the same time as Belle. They both kneeled and then waited.

"Rise," he hissed, glaring at them with his inhuman glowing red eyes, "what is it that you need to talk to me about?"

"We've some rather good news, my Lord."

"Yes?"

"Belle got Weasley to do an Unbreakable Vow swearing to never be a traitor to the Death Eaters."

"Why that is good news. But you could have told me this later. Why now?"

"We were wondering...if that meant Belle and I could stop acting and she could become...Hermione Granger again."

The room was quiet for a moment. Belle could hear one thing and that was only the sound of the breathing of the three people. Finally the Dark Lord spoke. First he removed the spell and Belle slowly began to turn back into Hermione 'Mudblood' Granger.

"Well, Draco. Hermione. There's one other reason why we thought up the plan for you two to pretend to be married. And that is the prophecy I'm sure you've both heard at least a little about," he paused but was not looking for confirmation, "in this prophecy it states a force of two adults the same age, once enemies who are forced to come together are to help the Dark side win the war. The exact words of the prophecy were as followed: The two who used to hate will be forced to come together to win the war for the Dark. Together they will be a force unbeatable by any foe. It took some researching but it's now safe to say those two people...are none other than the two of you." This time when he stopped he was waiting for a response.

"But, my Lord," Hermione started, looking confused, "what does this exactly mean for us?"

"It means," he said, "that you two—" he was interrupted by a door opening. Lucius stood at the door, his long hair billowing behind him as he rushed in. He began talking without kneeling before the Dark Lord, so obviously it was an emergency.

"My Lord, Potter has sent in another raid. The battle started out by the forests but they're getting closer to the house now. What should we do about Ginny Weasley and Hermione?"

"Lucius, get Narcissa to Apparated with Ginny and Hermione to the safe house in the woods. Tell her we'll contact them when the raid is over.

"My Lord, but the prophecy. What does it mea—"

"This is not the time for this, Draco. If you wish you can go with Hermione or stay here and fight. As for you, Hermione, find Ginny and Narcissa and get going." With a nod, Hermione shot up and ran out of the room, Draco close behind.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" Hermione asked him, spitefully, thankful that she no longer had to be nice to him, or God forbid, be kissed by him.

"I'm going with you."

"What? Why?"

"I want to talk to you about this prophecy. I want to know what it's about before the Dark Lord tells us. I like knowing things in advance."

"Mal—Draco," she said, using his first name to get him to understand she was being completely serious when she said this, "stay here, fight. They're going to need your speed and brains in this battle. I'm sure Potter didn't come himself, being the bloody coward he is but Ron might be there. You could always get a kick out of torturing him right?"

"That's true. Fine, I'll stay here. But I want to talk to you after the battle."

"Right. Bye." Hermione started to run towards the room the party was in, in hope Ginny would still be there.

"Grang—Hermione, wait a second." She spun around and headed back but before she could ask him what he wanted, he kissed her softly on the lips. Before Hermione could pinch herself to see if Draco Malfoy had really just kissed her without the threat of it being an assignment, he ran towards the front door and headed towards the sounds of battle. Hermione raced to find Ginny.

She was still in the party room, looking nervous as she wrung her hands together. When she saw Hermione she gasped.

"Hermione! What are you doing here? Did Harry tell you to come and get me? I'm doing fine."

"Ginny. Gin. I've something to tell you. I know that you've joined the Death Eaters for real."

"What? No I don't know what you're talking about I wouldn't ever do that—"

"Gin, I'm Belle Malfoy. I told everyone in advance you'd be coming so they thought up as me pretending to me Malfoy's wife. But now that you've signed an Unbreakable Vow to never betray the Death Eaters I don't have to hide behind a fake identity anymore."

"You're...a Death Eater too?" Ginny asked in shock. Hermione simply showed her the Dark Mark on her left forearm.

"Wow," Ginny said, showing her hers as well, "if anyone heard about this they'd think we were the last two people expected to go to the Dark Side." Hermione laughed in spite of herself.

"Look, this isn't the time for laughs. There's a battle going on and we're supposed to find Narcissa and get Apparated to the safe house."

"No need to find me, I'm here!" Narcissa called, rushing into the room, "Come, come. We've got to get to the safe house. Hermione, I've got to tell you the rest of the prophecy and Ginny I'm sure Hermione could give you the basics of being a spy. It is _not_ all fun and games as I'm sure Hermione will tell you."

With a nod, Hermione and Ginny grabbed hold of Narcissa's arm and waited for the sensation that was Side-Along Apparation. Hermione kept her eyes closed as they traveled, and by the time she opened her eyes again, the location had changed. They were now in what had to have been a tiny shack, with creaking floorboards and broken windows. Hermione could hear the wind whistling through the trees. There was a wooden table with four chairs around it. The two younger girls sat down and waited for Mrs. Malfoy to speak. Quickly, Narcissa looked out a crack in the window then turned around so fast that her silver-blond hair whipped back around and ended up flowing down her back like usual.

"Well," she started, sitting down gracefully before speaking again, "Miss Granger, where did the Dark Lord leave off about the prophecy?"

"Something about me and Malfoy having to unite and we also had to— and that's where it stopped."

"Alright, now this may be shocking, Hermione. You and my son have to unite in the way of having a child together. Before the year's end _and_ get married. For real this time."

"WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"Hermione—" tried Narcissa.

"IT WAS HARD ENOUGH PRETENDING TO BE MARRIED BUT _ACTUALLY_ MARRIED?"

"Hermione—" Narcissa attempted again.

"NO! I WILL NOT...WE CAN WIN WITHOUT THE PROPHECY I KNOW WE CAN...WE'VE GOT TWO SPIES WITHIN THE ORDER THAT ARE AROUND THE AGE OF POTTER WE CAN GET THE INFORMATION WE NEED, THROW HIM OFF BUT NO I WILL NOT MARRY HIM ARE YOU _KIDDING_?"

"Hermione, the Dark Lord has specifically asked to make sure that this prophecy is fulfilled. Together the power you possess will be unbelievable. Unimaginable. He thinks it will help us win the war a lot faster than if it is not full filled."

Hermione did not respond. If the Dark Lord, _specifically_ asked then if she disagreed then he would be notified and there _would_ be punishment.

"Fine," she said, in a quiet little voice that sounded a little bit like she was pouting, "What did Malfoy have to say about this? Or has he yet to be told?"

"He's fighting at the raid, you dumb girl," snapped Narcissa. She shook her head to calm herself before continuing, "Anyhow, the Dark Lord says the marriage has to begin as soon as possible. He's going to be the one who performs the marriage, of course. It'll happen as soon as possible and I'm going to plan it. It's going to be a grand affair. Everyone will be there. Well, all the Death Eaters and their families at least—"

"Okay, thank you Mrs. Malfoy. But I think I'm supposed to tell Ginny about being a spy for us now, right?" Hermione stated, desperately wanting to get away from the woman blabbing about wedding plans to the royal prat.

"Yes, yes, but one more thing...tell her the truth." She said this as though Ginny wasn't even in the room, even though she was. So obviously Ginny looked instantly curious.

"You mean..."

"The truth about all the stuff you told her."

"Alright..."

But if Ginny knew the truth, would she go back to the Order? Hermione took Ginny by the arm and brought her over to the moth-eaten couch and sat down, wondering if it was the smartest idea telling Ginny the truth.

* * *

**Editor's Note**

Crap. Don't you hate this girl? 'Pouts' I really wanted to read the long version but noooooo, she just had to forget to save the longer version. So we lost a few days thanks to that because she had to retype a bunch of stuff. I can't believe I have to give her a Starbucks gift card for something so short!!

So anyway, if you want to read the rest of this, you've gotta review. And no, I'm not going to give you a peppy little talk about reviews this time because I'm busy listening to depressing music. What chapter fact this time… Wanna know her address? So that if she doesn't update you can go threaten her in the middle of the night. Nah, I'll tell you something else about her… She has a fuchsia beanie baby mouse that she named Gladys which is a girl's name but she insists that Gladys is a boy. This is why she is insane. And now, I go to take a nap because I'm freaking tired.

Oh yeah, would anyone like to visit an amazing place I just discovered because I'm retarded? You can find me there too where I might be able to answer your questions about what's happening in her crazy mind. You can also get music downloads and whatnot there too. It's: www. esthetique-realm. net

Take out the spaces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, time for reviewer replies from me!!

Ally: She updated!! And thank you for reviewing, wanna come back and do so once more?

HQW: I know who you are, I know where you live, I know your parents and I cleaned your living room. The room Howard immediately messed up again. Where were you? Were you cutting class? Lilly cut gym today, can you believe it?! And I've been bugging her forever… Appreciate me, 'kays? 'cause otherwise you'd be the one trying to make sense of Morgan's insane grammar.

Kristen: Edwards? I'm not sure, you go to GMS though, right? Sorry, anywho, thanks for reviewing. You should review more it'll make this lazy bum update faster.

lilpeng1: Actually, yes she does have to end it like that otherwise you guys wouldn't anticipate the next chapter and come back to read it and review, right? Hmm, you're right, she probably is a good Death Eater. Wanna hear the teeniest spoiler? Ginny and Blaise are gonna end up together.

Sakurashisora: Courtney why the –BLEEP- do you have such freaking long names? I'm telling you, it's a pain to type out. Gosh, anyway, don't use 'heya' because it could confuzzle Japanese people. Feel free to stalk Morgan, really.

Demoness-Marlstonwells69ner-See above reply for complaint about super long user names. Alright, next, Ginny does seem like such a -bleep- doesn't she? I apologize for the author's slowness with updating even though it wasn't my fault. Well, at least she updated.

Alyson- She didn't update that quick but I hope you're still hanging in there!! Review again!! And thanks for reviewing!!

Kelsie- Hi, you're back!! Sorry, she didn't write a long chapter. But it's not my fault so why am I apologizing? Anyhow, come back to school soon and stay away from Haoqing who says she wants to kill you for the blue tongue. Review again because they make her update slightly faster…


	11. Death Eaters Don't Play Fair and Square

**Author's Note:** Helloooo! I assume most of you haven't read this before, so the only Author Notes you're reading are ones that just say redone and stuff like that. So I'm making an actual note. Yes, this chapter has been redone. I don't know if I have a disclaimer, but I own nothing because my name isn't J.K. Rowling. Yep.

* * *

Chapter Eleven

"Alright, Gin, remember what I told you about Luna and Potter?"

"Uh...yeah. What about the back-stabbing, lying, cheating—"

"And that Weasley killed your mum?"

"Yes, Hermione, I remember, okay? What about it?"

"What would you say if I told you I lied?"

"Lied about what?"

"Potter isn't cheating on you. And Weasley didn't kill your mum?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Gin, I lied to get you to join the Death Eaters."

Ginny started to stand up. Hermione pulled her by the sleeve to get her seated again.

"You WHAT? Hermione, then WHY THE HELL did I join the

Death Eaters? Better yet, why the HELL did YOU? I've got to tell them. That you tricked me and that you're a Death Eater. . . ." Her words faded before leaving her mouth.

"Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking. You can't do that because of the Unbreakable Vow. You vowed to kill five important members of the Order. One of them probably being Potter. Look, Ginny. I_ know_ you think the Death Eaters are the bad guys. But think about it, we're both as bad right now. The Order is killing the families of Death Eaters. Just offing the children, the wives. People who have nothing to do with anything going on. Innocent people."

"So? The Death Eaters do the same thing. All the time. I'm sure of it."

"Yes," Hermione said, bluntly, "But it puts the Order on the same level as the Death Eaters. We're both doing the sort of thing. So why is everyone calling Death Eaters the bad ones? Just no one thinks into it. They just think we're bad. They just do what's easy."

"Yes, but—Hermione—our friends are in the Order—my family..."

"Ginny, no one ever _gets_ anywhere in the Order. You help and help but you don't get any rewards. With the Death Eaters, it's just...better. I can't even describe the feeling you get here when you do something right. It's marvelous, really."

"But when you do something wrong in the Order you don't get tortured."

"No but you get blamed, verbal abuse which is just as bad as physical abuse and as long as you don't _do _something wrong you won't get punished."

"No one's perfect, Hermione, everyone's bound to have done something wrong in the Death Eaters before."

"Well..."

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't know...a few months?"

"And how many times have you been tortured since you got here?"

"As a punishment? Twice. But really—Ginny, I can help you. We can work together and never have to get punished. I know we can. Just give it a chance, huh? It's not like you can get out of it anyways."

"Hermione...I'm not sure I want to do this. I'm scared. I'm scared for me _and_ I'm scared for you."

"We'll get through it, Gin, and we'll be at the top. We can become the Dark Lord's right and left hand women. How does that sound?"

"Well we might as well try." Ginny said, sighing, "Now, you said you had stuff to tell me about being a spy for the Death Eaters."

"Yeah, I do. It's hard. I obviously don't need to tell you that. For Muggles, you just need to make sure you don't tell anyone but for us witches and wizards if someone reads our mind and we don't have our traitorous thoughts hidden then they'll know. You've got to keep your thoughts in check at all times. To help me, when I _had_ to think of the Death Eaters, I had a different name for them. I called them, the dance teachers, just in case someone entered my mind."

"So like, the...yoga instructors..."

"That would work, sure. Next, is to make sure you keep all your thoughts to yourself. If you have a hateful thing to say, don't say it—"

"I don't have any hateful things to say. I wouldn't even be here unless I have to."

"Not the attitude we need. Just act normal. Act how you act. Don't let anything slip. I got myself a pensieve because we'll get tons of information. You can't always remember every important thing said. But you might need to transfigure the pensieve into something else so no one feels the need to poke around. For example, my pensieve takes the shape of a small plant in my room. It's simple enough that no one feels the need to bother with it." Ginny nodded and spoke four simple, short words.

"I can do it."

"Good. Now, I think that's about it for now. Just remember to keep your mind closed to intruders and make sure you're always thinking. Oh yes, if you use things as excuses, for example when I said I went to visit my boyfriend, you have to stick with it, one hundred percent. Just keep thinking. You've also got to make sure that you don't go against with what you said. Make sure you keep everything you say consistent. Don't go on and on about how you've been gone because you've been vacationing in Italy then accidentally say you've never been to Italy. You can't slip up because we don't have the time to fix it. I guess that's it."

"Okay, thanks Hermione. At least I know I can probably do this now, even though—"

"Girls, the Order is coming. They must have traced our Apparation route. I'll stay back and fight them, you two Apparate back to the Manor."

"No, we'll help you."

"We can't risk it, Hermione. If anyone sees you two fighting for the Death Eaters and they Apparate back to the Order, they'll tell everyone that you're spies. I mean I'm sure you can find your way out of that but we just _cannot_ risk you two being exposed. Now Apparate back, I'll be fine."

The girls nodded before picturing the kitchens of the Malfoy Manor, (because if they Apparated into the Entry Hall, for all they know they'd be going straight into the battle), and appeared in the kitchens. The first thing they heard was the panicked voices of worried house-elves. Next they heard a bang and a shout. One that sounded a lot likes Draco Malfoy's. Ginny and Hermione rushed out to see when the noise had come from. Once entering the dining hall they saw Ron and Draco in a heated duel. It looked like they were both sporting at least two wounds and that the battle was just beginning. Ginny had her wand out and was just about to say a curse, when Hermione pulled down her arm and dragged her to the corner, behind a very large statue.

"We can _not_ help I know it is hard but it's just what happens when you're a spy. Ask Snape if you don't believe me."

With an irritated sigh, Ginny watched the duel between her brother and her enemy. Hermione did as well, but first she wanted to get an idea of who was winning. She looked closely at Malfoy, his hair was tousled and blood was on his forehead, and Hermione saw a large stain of blood on his white shirt. Ronald looked worse. He seemed to be favoring his left leg, and holding his upper right arm. One of his eyes was swollen shut but he was doing better than Hermione would have expected him to. But she could fix that. She knew he'd be too deep into the battle to notice if she quickly entered his mind. So she tried it. She saw the curse he was planning on performing and if he managed to say it, well there wouldn't be two people to duel any longer.

So Hermione entered Malfoy's mind and told him, _He's about to do Avada Kedavra…_

Malfoy shot a curse at Ron, giving him a chance to respond, _You're back? If he's as weak as you say he is, it won't do me much harm._

_He seems stronger._

_It's probably just the lighting._

_Oh my GOD, just… I don't know, stun him first! Or kill him._

_Can't, we're supposed to keep him alive, then keep him prisoner._

_Then let me help you_.

"Avada Kedavra!" shouted Ron, and Hermione's eyes widened as the green light went towards Draco. As it hit him, the force made him go flying backward, landing with a crash on the ground. Ron looked triumphant. It was sickening. Without thinking, Hermione rushed forward, and kneeled down by Draco Malfoy.

Ron looked confused,

"Hermione? What are you doing here? Why are you next to Malfoy? Where's Ginny? Is she okay?"

Quickly, Hermione entered Ginny's mind and told her to stay put. She'd known Ginny long enough to know she wanted to burst out and hug her brother. Or something.

"Obliviate," she said, pointing her wand at Ron. She stupefied him and looked back down at Draco. He was breathing. And his eyes were open.

"C'mon, Granger, it was all apart of my plan. When the spell hit me, I knew instantly it wasn't strong enough to do anything. So I sent a curse at myself to make me fly backwards, then I was going to make him think I was dead, he'd walk over to me, probably to steal this," he pulled a silver chain out from under his shirt. It had the emblem of the Death Eaters, "To prove he's won. Then I would attack. Seriously, Granger. It was an _award_ winning plan and now I'll never get to try it."

"Come _on_, where are we going to put Weasley?"

"The prisoner room...obviously."

"Well, I was just checking." Hermione said, defensively. Draco levitated Weasley into the air and started towards the door.

"Gin, you can come out now." As Ginny eased out of her hiding spot, Hermione began following Draco into the prisoner room.

"Granger, tell everyone that we have Weasley. We could use him to get Potter here; now go find my father or Bellatrix."

Hermione nodded and headed towards the door, Ginny followed. The instant they exited, they saw that the battle was still in progress. Lupin and Mr. Weasley being the only two left, each battling four at a time. Before they could see the two girls, they ducked behind a statue.

"Why don't we just tell them we're here?"

"One, they think that the Death Eaters think that you're a spy _for_ them so they wouldn't even talk to you. Two, they can't know I'm here. I'm supposed to be researching. Three, I'm pretending to date Lupin, remember? And I can't deal with him right now," Hermione said in disgust, "C'mon!" Hermione and Ginny, ducking down, ran through the fight until they had gotten through unseen. Bellatrix and Lucius weren't in the battle, which meant they were probably with the Dark Lord, which was great. They headed to the Dark Lord's study first. They skidded to a stop in front of the door, Hermione knocked quickly.

"Enter," came a hiss. They obeyed, and went inside. And true to their guess, Bellatrix and Lucius were also inside.

"My Lord," Hermione bowed, then nudged Ginny to make her do the same, "We've captured Weasley. He's in the prisoner room."

"Very good, have everyone meet in the main hall and then tell them that I am on my way. And get someone to put Weasley in the cage."

"Yes, my Lord." Hermione replied, and left the room, Ginny on her heels.

"How do you talk to him? I can barely breath when he's in the room, I get so nervous!" Ginny whispered, as they rushed through the halls.

"I don't know, I guess I just realized that as long as you show him respect, and are telling him good news then nothing can go wrong. Now come on, we've got to get everyone to the dining hall."

Lupin and Moody were gone, and as the two girls entered the room, they saw that everyone was already there.

"The Dark Lord is on his way." Hermione announced, as they strode into the room, "And Goyle, put Weasley in the cage. Blindfold him too." Goyle nodded dumbly and headed for the prisoner room, while Hermione pulled Ginny aside.

"Gin, I know this is going to be hard for you, alright? I know that you're going to want to help him but what I'm about to tell you is no lie: if Ron really cared about what happens to you, he never would have let you come here in the first place. So whatever happens, he deserves because for all he knows, the same was happening to you. Which brings us to our next plan. We're going to pretend you're dead."

"_What_? Why?" Ginny's eyes narrowed, but Hermione answered calmly,

"_Because_ we aren't going to kill Weasley, okay? We're just going to torture him, then we're going to send him back to the Order, with the news that we give him that you're dead. After that they've lost all hope with getting a spy for themselves among the younger years. Then all of a sudden you'll come back to the Order, tell them that Ron stuffed you in some shed somewhere and left. They might not completely trust the story but it will stir the water in the Order. Believe me, it's a great plan—" Hermione stopped when she heard the main doors opening. The Dark Lord walked through them, and when he reached his chair, everyone crowded around him, kneeling in turn until everyone was on the ground.

"Rise," he hissed, then flicked his eyes over in the direction of the cage as he continued, "Today is a marvelous day because we have a special guest with us," At this point everyone turned to look at Weasley, who was squatting awkwardly in a cage that definitely was too short for him. Bellatrix sneered at him, Lucius went as far as to spit at him saying in a tone that left no question how much he despised the red-head, _"Blood traitor."_

Ron let out an angry growl and yelled,

"Let me out and we'll have a fair fight. I'll beat you fair and square!"

Narcissa glided over to them and said, quietly,

"It's time." Hermione nodded, but Ginny looked confused and at the same time, nervous.

"Time for what?"

"Gin, we're going to immobilize you to make you look dead, then we're going to tie you up and make you look like you died a gruesome and painful death to show Weasley."

Less than a minute later, the two had successfully tied the nonmoving Ginny to the floor and used appearance charms to make cuts, scars and bruises as well as a gaping wound from a 'knife stabbing.'

Ron was still yelling and his blindfold was still on, Narcissa whispered to Hermione,

"Change back into Belle, this will be the last time I promise." With a nod, Hermione was back to Belle and back to acting like Draco's wife. She walked quickly over to him and looped her arm through his right when someone pulled the blindfold off of him. The first thing he saw was Ginny's 'dead' body.

"SHE CHANGED SIDES! SO WHY DID YOU KILL HER?"

"Don't play dumb, Weasley, we knew she was a spy for your side." Draco called out, and right as Ron looked over at Malfoy, Belle leaned her head against his shoulder and he bent down and kissed the top of her head.

"I see you found someone that is oblivious to your ugliness, Malfoy." He said, attempting a snarl, before receiving a kick in the stomach, courtesy of Lucius Malfoy.

"And I see you've yet to find someone who finds your utter incompetence and clumsiness charming." Draco shot back.

"Crucio," the Dark Lord hissed, pointing his wand at Ron, who instantly screamed in agony. The Dark Lord kept the spell on for as long as anyone could without the effects that are proven in Neville Longbottom's mother and father. He was hurt and now he had no point to them, they just needed him to tell the Order of Ginny's 'death'. So Belle knew everyone in the room was wondering exactly how to get Ron out without looking like they were letting him go. Belle had thought of the perfect idea in an instant.

"My Lord, wouldn't it be fun to make this into a sort of game for Weasley's survival." 'Belle' said.

"Go on, Mrs. Malfoy."

"We let him out of the cage, and give him a five minute head start before we come after him. If he makes it to the edge of the forest, he wins the prize—his life. If not, then...well then he's dead." She finished, smiling sweetly.

"That sounds like a fine idea, Mrs. Malfoy. Crabbe, let him out. It seems, Mr. Weasley, you might just get out of here alive. But I doubt it." He added with a chuckle.

Crabbe unlocked the cage and backed off. Everyone stood silently, watching as Ron stepped out of the cage, nervously. He didn't have his wand, so they needn't worry about him trying to fight back.

"Go, Weasley, didn't you hear the rules? You have five minutes starting thirty seconds ago." Draco mocked. With that Ron ran for the door, and out of sight. Everyone laughed and congratulated Hermione—who was now Hermione again, on a great plan.

Sprinting as fast as he could, Ron saw that the forest edge was only 200 meters away. 100...50...and he was there. He glanced back, and saw no one. They probably thought that he would try to be tricky by going out a different exit or hiding in the house and sneaking out when they were out looking for him. He Apparated quickly to the Order Headquarters.

"Ron! You're okay, you're alive! What happened?"

"Ginny." Was the first thing that came out of his mouth. "Found out about Ginny," he said breathlessly, "She's dead. They found out that she was a spy and they killed her!"

Five minutes later, they had the pensive out and they were all watching the memory of him seeing Ginny, and when Belle Malfoy started talking, everyone went silent.

"Something about her seems familiar." Lupin said, quietly, "Not her appearance, just the way she acts."

"Yes, I just can't quite put my finger on it—or rather..who."

* * *

**Editor's Note:** Oh, hey, they've found out!! Or…. They're getting close. Dun Dun Dun!! Teehee, it's really too bad they didn't chase after Ron to scare him a bit . But anyhow, back to the drama. The suspense!! And the utter grossness of the Herms/Lupin. If you think about it… It's pedophilia isn't it? And if Hermione had been a few years younger… Child molestation and/or statutory rape…. Why am I writing this stuff in my editor's note? Oh yeah, because I'm listening to crazy music that's screwing with my head. Anyhoo!! Moving on!!

Review, yeah? Because you know you want to click on the pretty purple button, yeah. Also because you just know you want to drop our hard-working authoress a line to support her in these cruel times of high school scheduling, yeah. And because it's hard to motivate her to write more without reasons, yeah. Last reason: You know you just hate how I'm putting yeah at the end of all these sentences, yeah. Teehee, been reading too much Naruto fan fiction, yeah. So yeah. Review, yeah.


	12. A Death Eater's Wedding, After All

**Author's Note:** So I'm almost done going through with the spelling and grammar adjustments. I've stopped looking for Hermione OOC-ness because now she's been with the Death Eaters enough to have changed her personality a little more.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

"Now, Hermione," Narcissa stated, after they were sure that Ron had left, "we've got to start planning this wedding. There's so much to do, pick the dress, send out the invitations, get the decorator, the decorations… Come, come let's go shopping."

"Isn't it a little…well, _late_ to go shopping?" Hermione grasped at any excuse she could use to postpone shopping for a wedding she wanted no part in. But she should have known better. These were Malfoy's.

"You wouldn't believe the places that open for you with the right… persuasion, if you will."

Grudgingly, Hermione followed Narcissa to the fireplace, where they Flooed to a shop that was completely black, filled with the exact thing that Hermione didn't want to see. Black wedding dresses was not something Hermione saw every day. But what else was she to expect in a Death Eater marriage?

"Narcissa, aren't wedding dresses supposed to be…well, _white_?"

"Maybe in any other marriage, but not in this one. Everyone who has ever gotten married within the Death Eaters has worn a black dress. It's a tradition," she handed Hermione half a dozen dresses, "Go try these on." Hermione knew that she would be in this shop for an incredibly long time unless she picked a dress.

Luckily for her, the third dress she tried on fit her tastes; or so she told Narcissa, because personally she didn't care what she wore, it was going to be the worst day of her life anyways. After buying the dress, Narcissa started prattling on about how now they should go look at invitations, but a searing pain on their left forearms cut them off. The Dark Mark. Hermione, being grateful for the interruption, Apparated quickly to where the meeting would take place.

Everyone was already there. She walked over to Ginny, and noticed that she was looking around intently, her eyes stopping on someone briefly before moving on. Finally, Hermione saw her eyes rest on one person. _Snape? Why is she looking at Snape?_ Ginny's expression lit up and her eyes got very focused and narrow, like her mind was whizzing at a hundred miles an hour.

The door opened and in came the Dark Lord. Everyone bowed except Ginny. Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and pulled her down.

"What are you doing?" Hermione whispered angrily, "That's the _definition_ of a reason to get punishment. You can't just _not bow."_

"Sorry, I was thinking." Ginny replied, looking away and running a hand through her hair.

"Rise," the Dark Lord hissed, and they all did, "we have received word that the news of Ginny's death has been reported to the order. Ginny, I need to speak to you alone in my office. For everyone else, that is all."

The meeting broke up and Hermione watched Ginny follow the Dark Lord out the door. She saw Draco over by Lucius and Narcissa, and once she made eye contact with Lucius, he beckoned her over to them. As she walked, she realized that this was the first time being with Malfoy; out of a battle or the meetings, when he was her real fiancée. When she saw a small velvet box in his hand, she stopped in her tracks. _Oh no, not here, not right now. I haven't had time for this to sink in_. But she should have known she wasn't the only one in her thoughts.

_Look, Granger, I don't want this anymore then you do, but at least I'm not acting like you're a goblin or a troll_.

_Hey, I have seen a troll; I'm definitely not acting like I did then._

_That's not the point, Granger, the point is you're standing in the middle of the room because you don't want me to give you our engagement ring._

_It's more than that, Malfoy._

_Fine, you don't want to get married with me, and you don't want to have a kid with me, guess what, neither do I._

_That wasn't very nice._

_I'm not a nice person. Now get over here, people are starting to stare_.

Looking around, Hermione saw at least seven people looking at her strangely. She took a deep breath and walked the rest of the way over to them. _At least it's only in front of Lucius and Narcissa_, Hermione thought, optimistically.

"Everyone!" Narcissa called, once Hermione had come over. _Oh, damn. So much for that. _As soon as everyone in the room had looked over, Malfoy began to talk.

"As everyone has heard, there is a prophecy that if fulfilled will help us win the war. The prophecy states that: the two who used to hate will be forced to come together to win the war for the Dark. Together they will be a force unbeatable by any foe. That at least, is how much of the prophecy that everyone knows. The Dark Lord has told me there is more to this prophecy," Hermione's breath caught in her throat. There was _more_?

"At the beginning of the prophecy it was talking about how the two used to hate. Well, there was one missing piece that has just been discovered. The exact line of the prophecy is: once banded together, the two that were once enemies, will end up meaning more to the other than the entire world," _did that mean that…that we were going to fall in love_? _That doesn't seem possible_. Malfoy continued, "And we know who the prophecy is about. It's about me… and it's about Gran--Hermione. And because of that, I would have to say that this time is as good as any to say, Hermione, will you marry me?"

For the first time in her life, Hermione saw something different in the eyes of Draco Malfoy. She saw fear, she saw … anxiety, and she realized that she had been thinking about this all wrong since she had found out. She had been thinking that this marriage was going to ruin her life. That she was going to miss out on true love. She had been selfish and stupid. Malfoy was going to be missing out on the same things. He wasn't going to get to fall in love, get nervous about whether his loved one would accept his proposal, he didn't get to have kids with someone he loved, his life was getting ruined just as much as hers was.

She realized that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her response. Did they actually expect her to say no to a prophecy that the Dark Lord wanted fulfilled? Not likely.

"Um…yes? Of course I will." She didn't know how to act. Happy? She wasn't. Sad? She wasn't _sad_ exactly. Willing to serve to whatever the Dark Lord wanted? Yes, that was it, she supposed. But how did she put that into an emotion?

Malfoy opened the velvet box; the ring was beautiful, of course, as any ring bought by a Malfoy would be. She was shocked that it wasn't a black diamond or something, as the wedding dresses were. Instead it had a white gold band with a giant diamond in the middle, and two tiny diamonds fit into the side of the bigger one. She held out her left hand and he slid the ring onto her finger. Everyone clapped like it was a normal proposal that came from the heart, instead of a forced proposal backed up by threats if they didn't go through with it. People started coming up to congratulate them, and Hermione smiled and played along until the last one had left.

"The situation hasn't changed." Draco whispered to her as he pulled her from the crowd.

"What do you mean, 'the situation hasn't changed'?"

"You still have to stay in my room. But don't worry. I'm trying to find a way out of having to have a child. I know you wouldn't want that."

"It's not about what we want, Malfoy. It's about what we _need_ to do to help our side win the war."

"You're saying that whatever they want us to do, you'd do it? Even have a child?"

"The Dark Lord is making us, Malfoy, and there is no point trying to get around it. You'll just get punished. We might as well accept what has to happen."

"Whatever you say, Granger."

"Soon enough you won't be able to call me that." Hermione said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Since when will that stop me?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "I'm going to go talk to Ginny. You're going to … go do something else." With that she walked away, and over to Ginny, who had just entered the room again.

"So… what did you talk about?"

"Just about going back tomorrow. Whoa, nice ring."

"Yes, it is nice, isn't it? And so the forced proposal begins."

"I heard that some arranged marriages turn out alright, even good. You know, that the two fall in love." Ginny explained. Hermione winced as she remembered the end of the prophecy. Were they going to fall in love? It didn't seem possible. With a sigh, Hermione said, "The meetings over, right? I think I'm just going to go to bed. In _Malfoy's_ room, where _Malfoy_ will be next to me. At least if I go now, I get a chance to get changed into my pajamas and stuff without him in there with me."

"Yeah, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"When are you leaving?"

"At 10:00am, but breakfast is--"

"9:00am. Right, that's the same time I had to leave. I'll see you at breakfast."

"Right, good luck in Malfoy's room."

Rolling her eyes, she headed out of the room and up the stairs. When she opened the door, she saw none other then Malfoy, walking past her with a toothbrush. Shirtless. But she was going to ignore that fact.

"Oh!" she said, jumping back slightly and tripping over the doorstop.

"I didn't think you--," Draco started the same time Hermione said, "I was going to try and get--," they both stopped talking, and were silent for a moment. Then he walked back into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Merlin, that wasn't awkward at all." Hermione muttered as she went over to the dresser, where she assumed her clothes had been put. She found them and grabbed a tank top and sweatpants before heading over to the bed. Since he was in the bathroom, she would have to change in there. Just as she pulled her t-shirt off, Malfoy came out of the bathroom. He stopped in his tracks, mumbled some sort of an apology, and then went back into the bathroom. She finished changing quickly and then went over to the bathroom door.

"Can I come in?"

The door opened and Hermione walked in. All of her bathroom supplies were by the sink, so Hermione grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste to brush her teeth. She didn't notice that Malfoy had left the room.

"So," she said, after spitting out the toothpaste, "is this going to get less--" she turned to see him gone, and stopped talking. Glancing out of the bathroom, she saw the lights in the bedroom were off and a figure was in the bed. Sighing, she walked into the room and went to the other side of the bed. She slid under the covers and fell asleep as far from Malfoy as possible.

* * *

It was late, really late, but he couldn't sleep. All he could think about was the girl next to him. He heard her breathing steadily and knew she wasn't awake, so he turned to his other side to look at her. She looked peaceful as she slept, her arm was resting under her head, and she had a slight smile on her face, like she was having a pleasant dream. He couldn't figure out his feelings for her. It wasn't…hate anymore, but it definitely wasn't love, or anything like it.

She intrigued him. That was it. Every second of every day he wondered what she was going to do next, and it was never what he expected. She was brave, and smart, and… well she was beautiful but he had been denying that since the beginning, since he walked into that broom closet. He _did _have to get married to her so it would be a lot easier now that he didn't hate her. He only wished that he knew her feelings for him. He saw a shimmer from her hand and saw the engagement ring. When he had bought it, he had only been thinking about getting the most expensive one there. Not because he wanted to impress her, but because he was a Malfoy and that's what he did. Now that he looked at it, he realized the ring didn't really look like the type of ring she would wear. She needed a simpler ring that was equally as beautiful. He sighed, and looked at her again. Was the only feeling he had for her intrigue? Or was it more?

* * *

Hermione hadn't had a lot of dreams in her life. There was a month or two when she was a child where she had a nightmare about a clown, and of course her seventh year of Hogwarts, where she became afraid to sleep because of the nightmares that would haunt her about her friends and family getting hurt. She had never had a good dream before. And she wasn't sure if this dream was considered good. Maybe the feeling of happiness was just apart of the dream. After all, Malfoy was in it. And she didn't know what she felt for him.

She and Malfoy both looked only three or four older than they did now. It had to be their anniversary of some sort, because he had given her a present, and then their two children; who looked around the ages of five and three years old, had come running up, both looking like a mix between Hermione and Draco. They said "happy anniversary" and gave them a drawing of their family. But then the dream turned bad, the Dark Lord came and demanded that he needed the children, that they were apart of another prophecy, that they were to be taken away to stay at the Dark Lord's manor. When Hermione had started crying and saying that he couldn't take their kids, he lifted his wand, preparing to curse her, probably with _Crucio_, but Draco stood in front of her. The Dark Lord smiled evilly and did the curse on Draco instead. That's when she woke up screaming.

"Granger? What the hell?" Malfoy sat up and turned the lamp on. She wasn't screaming anymore, her screaming had quickly turned into crying and shaking.

"Granger? Gra--Hermione? What's -- what's wrong?" This wasn't the type of situation that Draco was good at. She collapsed into his arms, still shaking.

Draco just kept repeating "it's okay," until she calmed down. Then he asked what he had before, "What's wrong?"

Hermione wasn't sure what was wrong. Was she scared because the dream might be true? That she might one day have feelings for Draco, that he would have strong enough feelings to protect her from being tortured, or that if that dream did come true, the Dark Lord would take away her children?

* * *

**Editor's Note:** I'll make this quick because I figure you'd rather hear from the author. All right, we're both very sorry about the delayed chapter but… Finals, midterms, stupid computers and other various stuff has been messing us up so yeah. But it's a long chapter to make up for it. She says the next one is half done so we'll try getting that one up quickly too. Thanks for sticking around!


	13. Bad Dream

**Author's Note:** Also redone. I just realized, my editor's gone D: That makes me sad. Basically this chapter was written weeks/months ago, but I just realized that she's gone! I MISS YOU REBECCA! I'll make sure to say that in a chapter she'll actually be reading.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

"Nothing," she took a deep, shaky breath, "just a bad dream."

"Alright, what happened in it?"

She remembered every detail of what went on in the dream. But she didn't want him to know that the source of the crying and screaming came from the idea of the Dark Lord torturing him.

"I rarely remember my dreams, Malfoy," she snapped, pulling back from his embrace. He glared at her for a moment, then rolled his eyes and plopped back down onto his pillow.

"Whatever, Granger," he muttered, before rolling over and falling back to sleep.

Sighing, she fell backwards to stare up at the ceiling. Only a few moments later, snores could be heard from Malfoy's side of the bed.

_It was just a dream_, she assured herself, _just a dream. It won't necessarily happen, the Dark Lord won't come and take Malfoy and my imaginary kids and won't torture Malfoy. Calm down, Hermione, and just go to sleep._

Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes and tried to clear her mind and go back to sleep.

Little did she know, Draco Malfoy had long mastered the art of the fake snore.

* * *

Hermione woke the next morning to Draco rummaging around the room. She groaned audibly before rolling over and trying to block the light pouring in from the windows.

"It's almost nine," he told her, as he opened the door to the walk-in and stepped inside.

"Fine," she sulked, sitting up and rolling out of bed. She trudged over to the bathroom and made to turn on the shower, but Draco's voice stopped her,

"When I say it's almost nine, I mean, you have five minutes before we're late."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Hermione complained, turning and walking past Malfoy, who was leaning on the doorframe.

"You needed your beauty sleep," he raised his eyebrows mockingly, "emphasis on _beauty_."

"Nice, Malfoy," She muttered, then grabbed some clothes from the closet and changed quickly before using the appearance spell to apply her makeup, "Are we late yet?" She asked Malfoy, as she was slipping on her shoes.

"Just about, we better get going," he said, and they rushed out the door.

"You know what," Hermione hissed as they sped down the halls, "if Lucius gets mad that we're late...I'm _so_ telling him it's your fault."

"Oh, you're really going to rat out your almost hus—"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say tha—"

"Say what? Husband? Husband, husband, husba—"

"Last chance," she warned, opening the door to the dining hall,

"HUSBAND, HUSBAND—," then he looked up and saw everyone staring at him, "Oh, hello everyone." He replied pleasantly, "Not late, are we?"

"Almost," Lucius said, coldly, gesturing at the open seat next to him. Draco took that seat, leaving Hermione next to Ginny.

"Hey Gin," She whispered, hurriedly, before piling her plate with whole wheat toast and fruit, which would have been Bellatrix's exact meal if she had been there, "Nervous?"

"No," she replied, pouring herself some orange juice, "You'll be back there too, right? Soon?"

"Next week, probably," Hermione assured her, and glanced at the door when she heard a creak that meant it had opened.

"Sorry I'm late," Snape said smoothly, "There was a little problem I had to take care of."

Lucius nodded in acknowledgment before resuming his conversation with Draco.

"Excuse me," Ginny muttered, "I have to talk to Snape for a second."

Hermione watched her stand up and walk over to Snape, but then focused back on her food. It's not like they could have been talking about anything important.

* * *

After the meal, the same sort of thing went on as Ginny was sent off to the Order. As people came up to give her advice, Hermione hung back against the wall, waiting until the last of the Death Eaters had finished giving Ginny counsel and directions, before heading over to her.

"Good luck, Gin," Hermione told her, smiling, "I'll see you next week."

"Yeah," Ginny had a look on her face that Hermione couldn't quite place, but ignored it as Lucius ushered her out of the door.

"Hermione," Lucius motioned her over with a wave of his hand, and Hermione graciously obliged, glad to have something to do.

"Yes, Lucius?" She asked once she reached him.

"Can we trust her?" He pointed out the door.

"Well, only in the sense of she's under an Unbreakable Vow."

"Meaning?" Lucius asked, his eyes looking angry at her response for a moment before going back to normal.

"She doesn't seem so sure about it, but I don't see how she could get around the Unbreakable Vow."

"Good," he nodded curtly, then called Draco over, "Draco,"

"Yes, Father?"

"I need to discuss a few things with you. Hermione, we'll talk later."

"All right, sir," Hermione backed away and jogged up the stairs and back up to her and Draco's bedroom.

* * *

A week went by relatively fast with absolutely no action or even news about the Order. So for the inner circle Death Eaters that just meant a load of meetings with a lot of planning. But as Hermione was not in the inner circle, which meant her week was filled with whatever she wanted. Many potions and antidotes were made and even managed to avoid Malfoy for most of the time.

When the day came that Hermione had to leave for the Order, Narcissa told her that she needed to talk to Hermione and Draco about their wedding, which was a conversation Hermione was not looking forward to.

There was a knock on the door at exactly 8:00, and Hermione and Draco were both seated on the ottoman by the foot of their bed when Narcissa entered.

"Hello Draco, Hermione," she said, smoothing her skirt out with one hand, while the other held a thick notebook, full of information about the dreaded wedding, "I have so much to tell you," she clapped her hands once in excitement, "As you know, we sent out the invitations, planned the menu, and we got all of the decorations we need. The ceremony is going to take place outside in view of the gardens, and the reception is going to be in the house, of course. And your honeymoon is going to be on our private island in the Bahamas. It's only a few days of course, but we need you here in case anything happens with the Order." Hermione groaned inwardly at the thought of their honeymoon, but didn't dwell on it as Narcissa continued, "Ginny will be your maid of honor, Hermione, and Draco, you can pick between your friends."

"Yes, mother," Draco agreed, before focusing in on a random spot on the wall, obviously not paying attention.

"Draco!" Narcissa scolded lightly, "This is your wedding we're planning, you could at least pay attention!"

"Sorry, mother," he replied, tonelessly.

Narcissa rolled her eyes and made an annoyed face, before turning to Hermione, who gave her an amused smile.

"Alright, moving on," Narcissa glanced at Draco, before looking back to Hermione, telling her to play along, "Well, Draco will be wearing a pink suit, of course. With a purple top hat. Don't you think that would look lovely, Draco, dear?"

"Of course, mother," he replied, still staring at the wall. Hermione and Narcissa stifled their laughter.

"Good, very good," Narcissa nodded, "and Pansy could be the best man, I guess. Or, you know, Hermione, she could be the bride. Right, Draco?"

"Righ--hey, what? Pink suit?"

"Way to pay attention, Malfoy," Hermione mocked, smiling.

"Whatever, Granger," he sneered, sitting back against the bed and crossing his arms over his chest.

* * *

Hermione jogged up the path to Orders Headquarters, still smiling from the occurrences that happened earlier that day. She pulled open the door, and walked into the darkness of the empty looking front room of Headquarters. The moment the door clicked shut, three beams of light from three different wands shot in her direction, throwing her to the ground.

* * *

**Sniffle, no editor's note D:**


	14. Chained Below My Feet

Chapter Fourteen

When Hermione regained consciousness, she first noticed the darkness of the room she was in. She couldn't figure out where she was, and the last she remembered, she had been walking into Headquarters. So what happened?

As she tried to sit up, she realized that her wrists were uncomfortably and tightly tied in front of her, with the other side of the rope attached to a clasp on the ceiling. The door swung open and Hermione finally realized where she was. The prisoner room, or as Harry and Ron more affectionately called it: the torture room.

Suddenly, people were swarming into the room as though they were being chased, and the lights flickered on so Hermione could see the people that had crowded into the room.

Harry and Ron were in the front of the group, glowering at Hermione. Behind them was the rest of the Weasley family, along with Lupin and a few other people. Ginny was among them, looking smug as she stood next to … Snape? _He's not apart of the Order anymore_, Hermione thought, confused. She heard a squeaking noise, and saw Fred Weasley using their bizarrely Muggle contraption of a pulley system to hoist the prisoners into the air with their arms above their heads. In moments, Hermione's feet were suspended in the air, and she thrashed around slightly trying to free herself as everyone grew nearer to her.

"Why would you do this, Hermione?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing, "What, you decided to target Malfoy as your next conquest?"

"And what about Lupin, then?" Ron snarled, obviously forgetting that he was in the room, "since you're all about older men, have you slept with Lucius too? What about You-Know-You--"

"Yeah, how's your master doing? Killed any innocent people today?" George snapped, his disgust obvious on his face.

Hermione was determined to remain silent, knowing that anything she would like to say to them would only make matters worse.

"And trying to drag Ginny into your little operation?" Ron said, protectively soothing Ginny by putting an arm around her shoulder.

"What are Voldemort's plans, Hermione?" Remus said quietly, looking up at her for the first time, his eyes full of obvious pain. _Oh come on, how can you already care that much about me? We barely did anything!_ Hermione thought, rolling her eyes, which wasn't unnoticed by the rest of the Order.

"If you honestly think I'm going to tell you, you're blindly hoping for something that's not happening," she said shortly, keeping her eyes trained on the stone wall behind the group.

"_Crucio_," it came from the voice she had been expecting it would. Harry. She writhed as a milder pain than she was used to rushed through every inch of her body. But she knew that if there was ever a time to show her power against the curse, it would be now. As her body flailed around, she clamped her mouth shut, almost drawing blood from where her teeth were biting down on her tongue.

But then, it was over. It wasn't as bad as she had been through before, and she was planning on telling them all exactly that. In the meanest way she possibly could. Obviously her keeping quiet plan was over with.

"Was that supposed to be painful?" She scoffed, smirking down at Harry, and then glancing over to see Ron's face getting redder with anger, "Let me tell you this, when the Dark Lord finishes his brilliant plan, you all will fall. People who naively follow some _boy_ with no extraordinary magical powers obviously aren't strong enough to face even a minute in the presence of my master."

She continued, noting the livid faces of her audience, "And when that moment comes, I'll stare down at your dead bodies and laugh. For when you had me on your side, you didn't use me to my full purpose. You must have known then, that there was a prophecy?"

No one looked shocked. So she had been right in her guess. They had been leaving her out to keep her away from the Death Eaters, and her destiny.

"And you thought you could stop it from happening?" Hermione smiled, sweetly, "Well, sorry to say, but your attempts were fruitless. In case you can't see my hand--it is rather hard over the _chains_ I'm in, but I'm wearing an engagement ring. Can't stop what's meant to happen, can we?"

"We can stop it right now actually," Fred stepped forward, wand raised.

"One moment, if you please, I'm not quite done," Hermione mocked, "You're all bloody hypocrites, you realize that, right? These chains are barbaric, cruel, and well, what am I thinking of? Right, they're practically what we have at our mansion. So, how are you any better than us? You walk around free while practically every one of us stay hidden away, and you kill families and innocent people, just like us. That--"

"Fine, you don't want to be chained to the ceiling?" Ron said angrily. With a flick of his wand, the chains broke and she plummeted a few feet down to the ground. Smirking at his stupidity, she quickly and stealthily placed a finger on her wedding ring, whispering a spell in Latin, one that would immediately inform Draco of her danger. She would have to count on another one of their spies to give away the whereabouts and allow the Death Eaters to enter and save her.

Once Dumbledore had died, everyone who had known about the Headquarters location had become the new secret keeper. It was dangerous, of course, and stupid of them to keep staying there when its location could so easily be compromised. It was then she realized that _she _could have given the Dark Lord the exact position of Headquarters, anyone could have. Hermione supposed that no one had realized that once the secret keeper dies, anyone can tell the location. Lucky they had her now, weren't they? Now all Hermione had to do was keep them talking until her saviors got there.

"So," Hermione started, as Fred shot blue sparks out of his wand, making ropes appear and tighten around her, "not very friendly."

"You might get that impression now that you're looking from the other side of things," Ron snapped. Hermione ignored him,

"I'm curious. How is it that Ginny is still alive?"

"Do you really think we're going to tell you? Just what we _don't_ need: Death Eaters finding out how to break Unbreakables."

"I thought you had no intention of letting me out alive," Hermione said, slowly, struggling to sit up while tied.

Everyone in the other exchanged glances, "Well, I suppose…" Fred muttered to George.

Ginny stepped up until she was in front of the group, "I'll tell her. I've always wanted to out-smart Hermione Granger, and what's the fun if she doesn't know how I did it?"

Hermione smirked, "Continue, by all means."

"Well, at first, all I needed was a Death Eater who was actually with the Order, to help out. Snape."

"I thought Snape wasn't apart of the Order anymore," Hermione cut in, not able to hide her curiosity.

"Oh, well he is. He's still a spy for us, but no one really knew about it, except Harry and me of course. But anyways, I went to him and told him about wanting out. You see, since he wasn't specifically an Order member at the time, I was _warning_ a Death Eater, like one of the rules."

"Yes, but anyone who breaks one, don't they die?"

"Not right away," Ginny told her, smugly, "so that gave us some time to research a way out of that part. Of course, during that time, I was having some trouble with the other parts, like having to kill five Order members, and sometimes the urge was so bad, that Severus had to tie me down or stun me. But we found a way, it just required a potion. In case you didn't remember, Severus is very gifted at making potions. That, is how I finally outsmarted you. It's nice, really," Ginny continued, "to see you chained below my feet. Karma, in a way, right?"

"Not in my opinion," Hermione spat.

"Oh, well we've long given up caring what you think," Harry cut in, "So. I guess we have to finish this."

"Aw," Hermione mocked, smirking, "Are you _really_ going to kill your _best _friend? Think of all the _good_ times we had."

"Hilarious," Harry deadpanned.

Suddenly the door burst open, and in came both Lucius and Draco Malfoy, along with Bellatrix and a few other of the less important Death Eaters.

"Surprised to see us?" Lucius snarled, and sparks began shooting through the air.

Hermione felt strong arms pulling her to her feet, and couldn't tell if it was one of the Order or of the Death Eaters. She hoped for the latter, of course. Glancing around the room, she saw Draco avoid a jet green spell and saw that all the other Death Eaters were currently in battle. Meaning the person dragging her from the room was…an Order member.

"Hermione," Bellatrix called, and with a swipe of her wand, Hermione's bonds were cut and her captor was on the ground. Bellatrix threw a wand to Hermione, which she caught and quickly joined the battle. With a glance around, she saw that the Order was still greatly outnumbering the Death Eaters.

She looked for Lucius, and once she caught his eye, she motioned for the door, and he nodded, then tried to get Bellatrix's attention.

Once all the Death Eaters were ready, they chanted loudly in Latin, until they disappeared from the Order Headquarters in a cloud of black smoke.


	15. They Can Be Rough

Chapter Fifteen

Hermione let out a breath when she glanced around and saw that every Death Eater was accounted for. No one else looked nearly as happy as she did, and she realized they'd lost their best chance for a spy.

Lucius took two steps forward from where he had Apparated in, stopping in front of Hermione,

"My office," he ordered, "Now."

Hermione followed Lucius up two floors and down a hallway, stopping at a door near the end. Once it swung open, he strode in, Hermione still trailing behind him.

"How did this happen?" He erupted, his expression showing anger, but his voice not rising in the least.

"S-Snape," Hermione stuttered, briefly intimidated before realizing that she could walk out of here tortured and thought low of, or she could talk around it until he thought that this was for their benefit, "Snape," she repeated, this time her voice stronger, "It seems he's switched back to the Order and apparently they found a potion that saves someone from the death normally caused by breaking an Unbreakable. Being the dolts that they are, they actually told me a little about it. I'll bet I could find the potion in less than a week, in case it would be useful."

Lucius lowered himself into his desk chair, staring deeply at nothing in particular while obviously thinking this through. Hermione continued, undaunted, not willing to leave this room being worse off than before.

"I'd bet they're shaken by this though, that if someone so close to the inside could be a spy, then who else aren't they suspecting?"

"You said that she couldn't get out of the Unbreakable Vow." He commented, his eyes narrowing.

"Which is exactly what anyone else would have said. Unbreakable Vows are called such for a reason, sir, and unless it had been studied excessively, we wouldn't know any different."

"The Order knew," Lucius added, "If they found any information on it, we should have also."

"Well, we do know about it now. And there's so much we know that the Order doesn't. There's no way they're capable of catching up with us."

They were both silent for a moment, Hermione watching Lucius carefully as he tapped his wand on the desk in thought.

"The Dark Lord has called a meeting. We'll address this there."

Hermione nodded tersely, "When is the meeting?"

"It was called as soon as we got your message. I'd say almost everyone is there by now."

So once again Hermione followed Lucius in silence, going back down into the dining hall. As soon as they entered, Lucius took his seat near the head of the table, where the Dark Lord was still missing. Hermione slipped into her chair a lot farther down, near Draco and his friends. Draco leaned over from his seat next to her and whispered,

"Are you alright?"

"Fine," Hermione replied quietly, "It was only the Order, after all."

"Hey, I'm not at all impressed by Potter's little organization, but they can be rough."

"I'm _fine_, really," Hermione assured.

"Whatever," Draco said gruffly, returning back to his impassive tendencies as he turned to face the Dark Lord's chair just as he appeared.

"Hello everyone," he hissed, taking his seat, "I've heard news that displeases me. Who would care to explain what happened here today?"

All remained silent as every Death Eater turned to look at Hermione. Apparently, she was doing the explaining.

"Well my Lord," she began, "previously Ginny Weasley had been under an Unbreakable Vow, as you're aware, but Severus Snape; apparently now fully on the Order's side, found a potion to get her out of it. So she made my betrayal to the Order known, completely blindsiding me when I came into Headquarters. Being as unintelligent as they are, I was completely released for a few moments, giving me time to alert Draco through a spell. So they arrived at the Order, and after a brief fight, we escaped and returned here."

"I see," he replied, "so you're saying that Ginny Weasley got out of _your_ Unbreakable Vow, the one that _you _were to make completely foolproof? Are you sure that is the story you want to stick with?"

Glancing down, Hermione saw Malfoy's hands clench on the edge of his chair.

"Yes, sir," she replied, keeping her voice steady, knowing torture could be only moments away, "but, as I told Lucius, this could actually be a good--"

"_Good_?" the Dark Lord mocked, glancing around at the rest of his followers, "Tell me, then, Crabbe, does this situation seem _good_?"

The younger Crabbe looked up at the sound of his name, and was about to speak when his father; who the question had actually been intended for, replied, "No, sir, it doesn't."

"And Bellatrix, would you consider losing not only Severus Snape, but also a spy who was closest to Harry Potter as _good_?"

"It is certainly not good, my Lord."

"Exactly. It's _not good_!" the Dark Lord said, his voice rising a bit more than usual. With a wave of his wand, Hermione's chair; with her along with it, skidded backwards, until it rammed into the stone wall. Hermione bit her lip in pain, knowing that the worse pain was about to come.

"_Crucio_," he hissed, his eyes narrowing as Hermione fell from her chair and started writhing on the floor, her screams echoing in the room. The pain was unbelievable, for all of the Dark Lord's anger was focused in on one curse. As he released the spell, he glided over to her panting body, looking down at her as his wand pointed in her direction.

"Tell me, is there any reason to even keep you alive?" he stared at her, as if contemplating whether she was worth having around. Moments passed and still Hermione couldn't speak, couldn't debate for her life, couldn't beg. Though she probably wouldn't beg if she had the option.

"No? Well, if you insist. _Avada_--"

"Wait," came a voice from the group, the group that had remained silent as they watched Hermione's torture. The voice was Draco's. "The prophecy, my Lord. If she's dead, then the prophecy can't be fulfilled and we'll--lose the war."

It was enough. The Dark Lord backed up, still seething, "Fine," he said, "at least get her out of my sight," no one moved, "_Now_! Draco, get her out of my sight!"

Nodding, Draco rushed over to Hermione, pulling her into his arms and leaving the room.

"Hermione," he began, as they headed up the stairs, "you weren't even going to fight for your own _life_?"

"I…" she started, "tried to…"

Shaking his head, Draco pushed open their bedroom door and stepped inside. Once he pulled down the covers, he slipped the girl on the bed, before heading into the bathroom.

"Merlin, Granger," he whispered to himself, "Why do I care so much?"


	16. The Wedding

**Author's Note: **Revised. This one's longer too. By a little :D

* * *

Chapter Sixteen

Hermione yawned before sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. Suddenly, she froze,

"I'm getting married today," she whispered, sadly, looking around her room. Draco was nowhere in sight. _He's probably hiding from last minute wedding plans_, she smiled slightly, _speaking of which_… she thought, as Narcissa rushed in the door.

"Hermione! We have so much to do, get up, get up, quickly!" Narcissa said, hurriedly.

"Alright, alright," Hermione obliged, pulling herself out of bed, "What first?"

* * *

Draco sighed as he walked around the spacious grounds. He had awoken much earlier than Hermione, and slipped out of the room unnoticed, not wanting to face her sorrow about their inescapable wedding. Especially when his dread about said wedding was dwindling by the minute. He couldn't be falling in love with her…could he?

"I'm getting married today," he said, the wind carrying his words, as he glanced back at the manor. He wondered what Hermione was doing.

* * *

The Dark Lord sat in his study, smirking evilly as he thought of the events that would unravel today. Once the day had ended, Hermione and Draco would be close to fulfilling the prophecy. The war would be his to win, Harry Potter would finally die, and the Wizarding World--and the Muggle World, would be ruled solely by him.

"They're getting married today," he hissed, laughing quietly, as he stared into the crackling fire.

* * *

Lucius watched from a distance as his wife hurried around the Manor, making last minute adjustments and yelling at the house elves. She had sent Hermione upstairs to get ready, and Draco was nowhere to be found. He was supposed to be finding him--orders from Narcissa, but right now he was content in watching the wedding being set up.

"He's getting married today," he said, not really realizing he had spoken out loud.

"Lucius," his wife called, "You must find Draco! He only has two hours to get ready. Really, I'm not surprised that he's hiding out, but he needs to be _here_!"

* * *

Ginny Weasley sat at the kitchen table in Order Headquarters, still seething about Granger's escape. The rest of the Order sat around her, discussing her thoughts about the Final Battle, and where they thought Voldemort was actually staying. A sly smile formed on her face when they asked her again what she knew.

"She's getting married today," she looked around at everyone else, seeing the grins also developing on their faces.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Harry smirked, "Let's crash the thing."

* * *

A few hours later, the wedding was beginning. Death Eaters sat in every seat, and an awed silence filled the gardens as Hermione began her walk up the aisle. Draco couldn't keep his eyes off of her as she walked, the train of her black dress trailing behind her.

The dress was strapless, and was a tight fit until the waist, where it flared out slightly and touched the ground. Her hair was up in a messy bun, which was covered by her black veil. She held a bouquet of red roses--because who said everything in a Death Eater's wedding had to be black?

When she reached the front of the aisle, she handed the bouquet off to Pansy, her jealous maid of honor, whose job was forced upon her when Ginny went back to the Order. Hermione stood next to Draco, who looked very handsome in a black suit. His expression was solemn as the Dark Lord began.

"Welcome, my followers, to the binding of Draco Lucius Malfoy and Hermione Jane Granger. We'll commence."

All was silent as they watched the Dark Lord begin, "Do you, Draco Lucius, take Hermione Jane as your wife?"

"I do," he stated, glancing over at Hermione's stiff form.

"Place the ring on her finger," he ordered, and then watched as Draco took Hermione's left hand in his own and slid the ring onto her finger.

"And do you, Hermione Jane, take Draco Lucius as your husband?"

There was a pause, and then she inhaled quickly, "I do."

"Place the ring on his finger," he repeated, and she did, "I declare you bonded for life," and with a wave of his wand, their rings glowed for a moment before returning to normal, "You may kiss the bride," he said, dismissively. Tentatively, Draco leaned closer to Hermione, until their lips met. She pulled away a moment later, smiling superficially for the clapping crowd. They, believing her smile to be real, continued clapping. Following Hermione's lead, Draco smiled as well. After the couple had been offered congratulations, the crowd headed up to the reception. The Dark Lord was leading the group, noting that the bride and groom stayed behind.

"So," Draco started, glancing up at the departing crowd, "we should…probably get up to the reception. Personally, I'm starving, and we can't miss the toasts. And--"

"Draco," Hermione said, her grief badly hidden in her voice, "you're rambling."

"Yeah, sorry," Draco replied, "well?"

"Let's go," she agreed, and they quickly headed up the pathway.

* * *

The toasts began after the meal was finished. Draco and Hermione sat at the main table, along with Narcissa, Lucius, Pansy, Blaise and the Dark Lord. The first toast was, of course, the Dark Lord's.

He stood, and instantly all chatter stopped, and everyone's eyes turned toward him.

"What a happy occasion," he started. Even though he might have been being serious, anytime he said something nice, his tone of voice sounded sarcastic, "As we eat and talk, we celebrate not only the union of Draco and Hermione, but also the turning point of the war. No longer are we going to be unrecognized. No longer are we going to be underestimated, and kept in hiding. The prophecy is almost complete. With this marriage, Hermione and Draco Malfoy are now an unbeatable team. They will help us win the war, and our side will finally rule. Later on, when they have a child, we will have an heir to my throne. Today we celebrate. Because soon, the Wizarding world will be on their knees. Soon, we will rule."

With a smirk, the Dark Lord sat down, listening to the large amount of applause, "Lucius, if you will…"

Lucius stood up, ready to make his toast. He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, a rare sight to see from a Malfoy,

"Well, I can't really say it better than that. Today, there is a lot to celebrate. My son's marriage is only the first step. The first step in the creation of the world under the Dark Lord's rule. This will be a better world, and we should all be grateful to be apart of it."

Hermione heard Draco laugh under his breath as his father sat down.

"What?" she whispered, "it was a … nice speech."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" He muttered quietly in her ear, "He didn't want to outdo the Dark Lord."

Hermione smirked, "Well, obviously not, I suppose." She glanced up in time to see Blaise stand.

"This ought to be good," Draco muttered, smirking.

"Hello, everyone," Blaise started, "You all are aware that I've known Draco since birth. Since I grew up with him, really, all I can say is…Hermione, good bloody luck. He's a pain in the ass," there was some laughter here, and a glare from Draco, "but you can handle him, I'm sure. After all, you were the same way at Hogwarts," Hermione glowered at him, jokingly, "Anyways, a toast to the bride and groom."

"To the bride and groom," everyone repeated, taking a sip of their wine. Blaise sat down and Hermione leaned over to Draco,

"A toast without mention of the war," she commented, "I'm surprised.

"Ah, well, lightens the mood, at least."

Finally, Pansy stood up, "I'm supposed to make a toast," she sniffed, "about this _happy_ marriage. What a _joke_! Everyone knows that Draco should be mine. This marriage is a complete mistake! What were you all thinking, marrying Draco off to a Mudblood," she shrieked, "are you all _mental_?"

The Dark Lord stood, about to stop the madness, when the door to the dining hall swung open. In rushed one of their guards, an amused grin on his face,

"My Lord," he bowed, "A group from the Order are trying to get past the protective spells. They still think they've been undetected."

"I believe the werewolves will fend them off. Alert me if the situation changes," he glanced at Pansy, "I'll deal with _you_ later. Draco, Hermione, come," Hermione and Draco stood up and walked over to the Dark Lord, "You have two days for your honeymoon. I suspect you know what must be done."

"Yes, my Lord," they said, and he handed them their port key; an actual key. Draco nodded his goodbyes to his parents and Blaise, before they both disappeared and reappeared in front of a door. Using the key, he unlocked said door and they stepped inside.

"So, where exactly are we again?" Hermione asked, looking around the spacious entrance hall.

"Our house in the Bahamas. We own this whole island, actually, so we're the only ones here," Draco told her.

"Right," Hermione replied, nodding, "I guess we should…"

"We don't have to right now," Draco assured her.

"Well, the Dark Lord needs an heir, so we'll have to eventually."

"But it doesn't have to be right no--." He was cut off by Hermione's lips on his. She brought her hands around his neck, deepening the kiss, and finally Draco gave in, lifting her up. Hermione wrapped her legs around his waist, and Draco tried to maneuver them into the bedroom, or at least the living room.

Hermione moved away, "That's not going to work," she whispered, unraveling her legs to get her feet back on the ground. She pulled lightly on his hands, "Let's try getting into the right room first."

He nodded, and followed her up the stairs and into the bedroom. Draco kissed her fervently, feeling her push off his jacket and work on the buttons of his shirt. Once his shirt was the ground, she began working on his pants.

"No," he stopped her, "I'm far more naked than you."

"And we'll do something about that later," she promised, unzipping his pants and pulling them off.

Deciding to be more in control, Draco brought his hands to the dress' zipper, and once it was unzipped, it fell instantly to the floor. Draco took in Hermione's almost naked body, and the words that came out were unexpected, "Hermione…I love you."

She backed away quickly, "You…what? Draco…we're married because we were forced to. We were about to have sex because the Dark Lord wanted it. This isn't…" she searched for a word that didn't sound too harsh, "real. We're not…real. I'm Hermione Malfoy because I _have_ to be, not because I want to be." When she stopped speaking, she hurried over to the dresser that was already full of clothes. She pulled on the first article of clothing she could find; a very short, revealing nightgown.

"Ugh, Merlin," she swore, putting on a robe. Draco remained silent, "Look. I'll sleep on the couch tonight. We'll figure this out tomorrow, alright?" She paused, but he didn't reply. Biting her lip, she left the room, leaving a stunned Draco behind.

"_I love you_?" He questioned himself, "Where did that even come from? I don't love her. At least, I don't think I do."

* * *

Sighing, Hermione lay back on the comfortable couch, "_We're not real_?" She questioned herself, "What the hell was I thinking? I don't love him," she said this and knew it was the truth, "But with time? I just might."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

And the wedding chapter is over! Thank you everyone for your reviews and suggestions. Just because every reviewer wants the Dark Side to win, doesn't mean they're going to. I'm just saying that now. Okay, I am starting a new fan fiction soon. I was either thinking of rewriting The Pureblood, about what would happen if Hermione were in Slytherin, or starting a new one altogether. If anyone has any ideas for my new book, tell me in a review. I'll be writing the next chapter of A Difficult Assignment, but then I'll write the next chapter for this one. It's rapidly coming to an end.

PS. I don't know how many people realized, but I posted and deleted this chapter 4 times in 5 minutes. I'm having some trouble separating the parts. I tried using stars, but they disappeared, then I discovered the line on the edit part of the Documents section. I'm slow, right? But that didn't work either. So...IF IT WORKED, you'll see what's the lure of the dark side as the break. If not...ARG. sorry.

Also, I believe I got the idea about the beginning: different people saying how they're getting married today, from Princess Diaries 2. I think only Mia and then her grandmother said it. So I took it a little farther.

**EDIT:** I figured out how to make the lines work. Woo.


	17. If I Die

Chapter Seventeen

The next morning, Hermione woke up, grimacing when noticing the ache in her shoulders and neck. Slowly, she pulled herself into a sitting position, massaging her neck,

"You'd think the Malfoys could splurge on a _little_ more comfortable couch," she muttered.

"Good to know," Draco called. Turning around, Hermione saw Draco chopping up vegetables in the kitchen.

"What are you…doing?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm making omelets," he replied, the 'duh' could be implied, "My parents keep every house elf with them at all times, so we're on our own up here." She stood, walking cautiously over to the kitchen, wondering how to proceed after last night's disaster. _Draco seems to be pretending it never happened, _Hermione thought, _well, I can do that._

"You're putting vegetables in omelets?" Hermione questioned, going over beside Draco.

"Well, what else is there to put in them?' Draco shot back, "Great, I asked a question. Now I have to listen to your answer."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione strode over to the refrigerator, pulled it open and grabbed out a packet of bacon and sausage. Once she was situated at the stove next to Draco, she slapped a few strips of bacon onto the frying pan, and two sausage patties.

"It's going to taste _much_ better, believe me." Hermione bragged as the meat cooked.

"Nope," Draco replied, stubbornly, "I make the best omelets, and never before have I differed my recipe."

"Wait one minute," Hermione turned to Draco, "are you saying there's something you actually did _without _magic or house elves?"

"You underestimate me, obviously you don't know everything abo--." Draco started, but he trailed off when he saw the mischievous look in Hermione's eyes. She smiled, leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. It took him a second to respond, but moments later, he had her wrists and was pulling her towards the stairs. They made it to the bedroom without separating, and fell onto the bed, tangled together.

This time, neither of them made the mistake of ruining the moment with words.

* * *

It was eerily quiet when they returned to the Manor. At five o'clock in the afternoon, it was normal to pass at least a few people while walking through the house, but there was no one to be found.

"Something doesn't feel right," Hermione said to Draco, her voice breaking the heavy silence, "Where's Lucius? Bellatrix? Hell, I'd even be happy to see Pansy right now…"

"That's saying quite a bit," Draco said with a laugh, although it didn't reach his eyes, "Let's check to see if a meeting was called."

Hermione nodded in agreement, and they hurried down the hallway, their footsteps echoing. It seemed as though they had the right idea, because as they swung open the door, they saw everyone seated around the table as the Dark Lord stood, pacing.

"Sit," the Dark Lord said, without looking up. They obeyed without speaking, figuring that in moments they would find out what was happening.

But the silence continued, until finally Hermione couldn't wait any longer,

"My Lord," she started, leaning forward, "what's going on?"

The Dark Lord paused in his pacing, stared at Hermione and spoke quietly, "The Final Battle, Mrs. Malfoy. It happens tonight."

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately. It was obvious to Hermione now that no one in the room had known beforehand that this was the reason for the meeting.

"But, my Lord," Bellatrix said, "I thought the plan was for the battle to be months from now. Why tonight? What's changed?"

"Every day that we wait, the Order grows larger in size. I know that they also believe the Final Battle won't happen anytime soon. It is for that reason, I hope this will catch them by surprise enough that they don't have time to assemble everyone. I have faith that we will be victorious, but I'll admit that their numbers are daunting and they'll be even higher if we wait another two months.

As we speak, Harry Potter is at Hogwarts, and that will be where I finally kill him. Our troops are already gathering in the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Collect anything you need you bring with you, we leave immediately."

The room turned to chaos. Everyone jumped from their chairs; some Accio'ed weapons other than wands. A few people ran from the room, only to come back moments later wearing more suitable clothes. Hermione hadn't moved an inch since the Dark Lord announced the battle. _This is it_, she thought, _by this time tomorrow.. We could be ruling the wizarding world._

Another voice appeared in her mind, _or we could be laying dead on the battlefield. _

_Well, Draco, with that thinking…_

_I'm just being a realist. The Dark Lord didn't go into specifics about their numbers, but it doesn't look good. We're outnumbered 3:1._

_Our fighters have more experience_, Hermione countered,_ The Order picks up members from anywhere they can find._

"Come," the Dark Lord said, instantly silencing the chatter, and stopped Hermione and Draco's silent argument, "Our victory awaits."

The sound of Apparating filled the room, but Hermione and Draco didn't move until finally they were alone.

"If I die.." Draco started, but was interrupted by the sound of Hermione Apparating away.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

You hate me. If you don't, you should. I'm sittin' around at one in the morning, and I'm about to go read some fan fiction out of boredom when I think, when did I last update? Let me tell you, IT'S BEEN FOREVER. Sorry, man. AND this is a super short chapter. Sorry again. Luckily for you and me, this is winding up. I'm thinking the next chapter is the last one. I'll MAYBE have an epilogue for you, and I have a possible sequel brewing in my mind. I'm not so sure about it though. So let me know if I just should stop or if you'd like a sequel. I guess the ending will help you decide. But anyway…time to reply to reviews!

**rebeccaguo!**: Know what, Rebecca? Deal with it. I had a fail moment back in the day, and yeah.. Hahah.

**My-Edward-1992**: I know, right? Wait, what happened again? Sorry, wow. But yeah, that'd be one not pleasant moment..

**Bubbles-ZeeCrzy1**: Well, we'll see, I guess, right? I mean, you'll see. I already know who's going to win! (: Hahah.

Also thanks to **xSadistxFujix**, **beckychelle**, **SciFi Lover 87**, **jjp91**, **Rebecca101** and **christinaa** for reviewing.


	18. High Five?

Chapter Eighteen

To get onto the Hogwarts grounds, the Death Eaters had to Apparate to the outskirts of the forest, and then make their way through. The Dark Lord had rallied all of the troops to this area, and the moment Hermione Apparated, she was surrounded with everything from giants to dragons to dementors to trolls to werewolves like Fenir Greyback who wreaked havoc during all times, instead of just the full moon. Near Hermione was every Death Eater she knew, along with foreign wizards that they had recruited to fight alongside them. She knew that their numbers were large, and she knew that Potter would be taken by surprise, but that didn't stop her from worrying. While they waited for the rest of their troops to arrive, she paced back and forth while formulating every possible outcome of this night. _We could win and lose a small amount of people, we could win and lose a lot of troops, we could lose and get captured, we could lose and get killed, we could--_

"Hermione," said a voice from behind her. She spun around and saw Draco looking at her inquisitively, "_stop_ worrying. We're going to be fine."

"Weren't you the one who was being 'a realist' only five minutes ago?" Hermione snapped, then instantly regretted her tone. She was about to apologize when she noticed him looking at her hands, which were visibly shaking. He took her hands into his, "We're going to be fine," he repeated.

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, okay. Let's go." The troops had commenced on the long walk through the forest while they had been talking. The two began to follow after them, while Hermione desperately tried to calm her nerves. She decided to distract herself by thinking of the battle strategy and what she had to do when they got closer to Hogwarts. The Dark Lord had put together a contingency plan, even he knew that no one should be overconfident and have no escape prepared, and it was her job, as well as a few others, to put it into place. No one spoke until lights from the castle were visible, and then seven people, including Hermione, lifted their wands and whispered, "Haud hostilis may crux crucis silva versus," and drew a straight line across where the forest became the grounds of Hogwarts. Meanwhile, Fenir Greyback muttered, "bestia, adeo mihi," and smirked evilly as the creatures of the forest began to surround him, "pareo meus ordo," he then whispered. The deadly beasts of the Forbidden Forest then joined the troops, and that signaled the last of the preparations.

"My loyal followers," the Dark Lord started, and everyone who wasn't already turned to face him did so, "this is it. This is the night that I will finally kill 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' and prove after all these years that Harry Potter is alive because of luck, and not skill. After tonight, we will be ruling the wizarding world. You all know the plan, now let's see it through."

Just as the Dark Lord finished speaking, he lifted his wand to the sky, "Morsmordre!" Hermione watched as the Dark Mark appeared in the sky, smiling, and then lifted her wand at the same time as the rest of the Death Eaters, chose a location--Hagrid's cabin, and said, "Incendio." As the hut caught fire, so did the Whomping Willow, the Quidditch pitch, and numerous other areas on the grounds.

"Giants," the Dark Lord called, "go, now! And bring out the dragons." As the giants lumbered toward the school, three of the foreign recruited wizards mounted the three dragons and took off, also heading to the school, "Positions, everyone," the Dark Lord ordered, knowing that the second the dragons and giants made contact with the school, the war would begin.

The dragons reached it first, and with a roar, one of them let loose a long stream of fire, instantly catching the Astronomy Tower aflame. Then the dragons began circling the school, waiting for the war to begin. When the giants had made it, they began pounding through windows, causing screams within the school, and moments after that the main doors swung open.

In only a few minutes, the battle was in full force. Hermione had been wondering what it was going to be like for a while and now she knew--it was complete chaos. That was almost to be expected, of course, but she hadn't imagined it quite like this. All she knew of what was going on was what _she_ was doing. There wasn't time to look around, to see who was winning, who had died. There was really hardly time for her to take a breath in between battles. Currently she was fighting Seamus Finnigan, Cho Chang and Hannah Abbott. She knew all of them from Dumbledore's Army, which frankly made it easier because she knew their weaknesses. It was easy enough for her to finish off Seamus and Hannah, just a quick Crucio to get them on the ground, followed by the Killing Curse because the Dark Lord had ordered them to leave no survivors, and take no prisoners. As she was about to kill Cho, Kingsley Shacklebolt jumped in to help. Hermione cursed under her breath. If there was one person she really didn't think she stood a chance against--it would him. She shot a stunning spell at Cho, deciding to deal with her afterwards, and then she began to battle Shacklebolt.

It ended up being as hard as she thought it would be, and as their fight continued, she seriously wondered whether or not she would be able to kill him. A bolt of green light was headed straight at her from Kingsley's wand and she managed to duck just in time and send one back at him--which he dodged as well. Suddenly another Killing Curse was headed directly toward Kingsley and this one made impact. Hermione looked over and saw Draco.

"Well, you're welcome!" He said, smirking. Before Hermione could reply, Ron appeared along with one of his brothers--Bill or Charlie, it really didn't make a difference who it was.

"Ron's mine," Hermione whispered to Draco, who nodded and rapidly shot the Killing Curse at Bill/Charlie. He avoided it easily and their battle begun. Hermione looked over at Ron, he had his wand pointed at her,

"I've been waiting for this for a long time," he told her, "_Avada Kedavra_." Hermione blocked the curse with a flick of her wand.

"Don't be so dramatic," Hermione drawled, "_Crucio_." Her spell did not miss and Ron was on the ground screaming in pain. Hermione waited for him to stand before saying, "_Avada Kedavra_." Surprisingly, Ron evaded the curse, "You've been practicing," she noted.

Ron scoffed, "I am going to _finish_ you. You killed my mother. You killed---"

"Tonks, Moody, Kingsley, yes, I know, we don't need to repeat the list."

"_Avada Kedavra_," Ron tried again, this time though, he missed completely.

Hermione repeated the same curse, and Ron attempted to block it with, "Protego," but as any decent wizard would know, _Protego_ cannot block the Killing Curse, and moments later Hermione was looking down at the now deceased Ron Weasley.

"Idiot," she muttered and turned to see Draco shooting the Killing Curse at Bill/Charlie--this one finally made impact, "I feel like we should high-five or something," Hermione said to Draco, when he turned to look at her.

"Probably not the best time," he replied, with a grin.

She nodded in agreement and they separated, Hermione headed quickly towards Bellatrix, who was fighting four Aurors that Hermione couldn't remember the names of. The moment she reached the battle, a green light hit Bellatrix and she flew backwards and hit the ground.

"No!" Hermione turned quickly to the Aurors that had killed her practically mentor, and shot Fiendfyre at them, causing them to be trapped inside a circle of fire. Hermione had to focus entirely on keeping the spell in check, usually it was easy for the fire to spread out of control, but Hermione kept it in the ring until finally the screaming stopped. She put out the fire, looked down at the Aurors, and the one who had hit Bellatrix with the Killing Curse was still alive,

"Glacialis nex," she whispered, and moments later he was frozen solid. She then tended with Bellatrix's body, sending it back to Malfoy Manor, where they would bury their dead. Hermione looked around the grounds, trying to spot anyone who needed assistance. She saw Draco fighting the Weasley twins and was about to go over to him when someone from behind her said,

"Petrificus totalus," and Hermione froze, falling to the ground. She saw then that it was Ginny Weasley who had hit her with the spell, and knew that she would have no problem killing Hermione while she couldn't move--even though that was totally spineless and weak. Ginny was pointing her wand at Hermione, and she knew that she had only moments to figure out what to do. She needed to use wandless magic to undo the spell, _Finite_, she thought, but nothing happened. _FINITE_! It worked, and without standing up and before Ginny had realized what had happened, Hermione shot the Cruciatus curse at the girl, and stood up quickly while Ginny fell to the ground. She waited until Ginny had gotten to her feet, and they began to fight.

A few minutes into the battle, Hermione heard more shouting than she had normally and she began to glance around, and saw that near the middle of the grounds, Harry Potter stood grinning while the Dark Lord lay on the ground. Time seemed to slow as everyone fighting began to realize what had happened. Hermione began to search for the other Death Eaters, wondering if they should run now or continue to fight. She made eye contact with Lucius Malfoy, who looked worried for a moment, but then nodded at Hermione and shot the Killing Curse at the person he was fighting. Lucius Malfoy was the second-in-command. He had made the decision to continue fighting, so that was what they would do.

Hermione looked back over at Ginny,

"Looks like your master's dead," Ginny taunted, without looking away from Potter, "And now that it's over, I guess I won't kill you. A life sentence in Azkaban seems better. If I kill you…well, then you get to avoid prison. Doesn't really seem fair."

"Shut the fuck up," Hermione snarled, and shot the Cruciatus curse at Ginny, and quickly followed with the Killing curse. As Hermione searched the grounds for someone to fight, she noticed the sound of Apparation, and saw that more of the Order's troops had arrived. The Death Eaters were now not only outnumbered, they were _significantly_ outnumbered. She found Lucius again, near the Forbidden Forest, and pointed at the newly arriving troops. He nodded in acknowledgement, and he gestured for her to come over to him.

"Well?" she asked, once she reached him.

"I think it's time we…realize that staying is nothing more than suicide. Alert everyone. There's just one more person I need to deal with," he told her, looking directly at Snape. She nodded,

"Do what needs to be done," she agreed, "I'll tell them." Hermione stepped backwards into the darkness of the forest, their protection, because the spell they had cast earlier prevented enemies from crossing the forest line. She put her wand to her Dark Mark and whispered, "erectus copiae copie, subterlabor."

She knew that every Dark Mark would be burning, and turning red, alerting the Death Eaters that it was officially time to escape. After they escape, there would be a very brief window to get away while the Order was dealing with their dead. They would have to go back to Malfoy Manor, grab everything they needed, and then swiftly get to the safe house, one that was hidden with the Fidelius Charm.

Moments later, the Death Eaters were behind the safety of the forest line and were sprinting through the forest, trying to get into Apparation range. Looking behind her, Hermione could see the flames from the school and many members of the Order were near the edge of the forest, trying to figure out why they couldn't pass. She hoped that Lucius killed Snape and got out of there quickly, because if _he_ died too, there would be a bit of chaos, because Bellatrix had been the second in line to take over, and after her, the list got kind of fuzzy. Soon, they reached an area where they could Apparate and did so as fast as possible.

"Damn it," Hermione muttered, as she watched her friends hurry around the Malfoy Manor, grabbing what they needed, "We were really supposed to win this…"

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**A/N: **aannnd scene. Yeah, I know, you hate me. I have to admit, _everyone_ wanting the Dark Side to win is kinda why I had them.._not_. Had to be done, (: Anyways. Uh. Yeah. FINNNALLYY UPDATED. For any of you who read my other stories, I actually promised this chapter over winter break, but then I went to D.C. and then exams... so, exams are over, and here's your chapter. (: The plan is.. either the next chapter will be the epilogue or I'll have one more chapter and then the epi. But I PROMISE that I'll get these last two..or one chapters in as FFASSST as I can. And I swear that's not code for three months from now, I'll try to get them both done within the next two weeks or so. So. Review please. (:

Oh, and if you're not Author Alerted.....do work. (: because there's a chapter that I'm hoping to finish tonight for Life of a Pureblood. I've got about a paragraph of it done, honestly, but I don't have school tomorrow and I'm too tired to go out tonight, so I'll have nothing else to do. (:

Alright, replies to the reviews? I think so:

**jessirose85:** well, i didn't give you the dark side winning, even though everyone wanted it, so i feel like i owe you guys a sequel. we'll see. (:

**BoREdom mAnIFEsT**: hey becs. ahah. no sequel? even if she's not preggo?

**POM-frenchreader:** hahah. yeah. i've read a few of those silly ones too. ahah. and thankss. (:

Also thanks to: **SnowCharms**, **bubba**, **PyroAngel8605**, **DracosPhoenix16**, **Star-Of-Hearts**, **LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL**, **voldyismyfather** and **melissa** for reviewing. I love you all. (:


	19. Epilogue: Far From Over

Epilogue

Hermione glanced behind her to make sure she wasn't being followed, then she hurried up to the door, and stepped quickly inside. She walked down the squeaking stairs and into a dark and crowded room, causing everyone to fall silent. She glanced around her surroundings, still not used to the lack of light and the mustiness of their new safe house. She took her seat near the head of the table, next to Draco, and looked up at their new leader.

"Good, Hermione, you're here," Lucius said, "We were just about to start. Do you have news?"

"Of course," she replied, and she pulled an issue of the Daily Prophet out of her pocket, "As always, we're all on the front page," Hermione pointed to a side bar next to the main story--_Harry Potter Donates to War Relief Fund_, and read the name of the article and the first sentence, "Death Eaters Who Still Need to be Captured, if you see any of the following names, please contact the Auror department of the Ministry of Magic. All of our names are on here, of course. But that's not even the interesting part.." Hermione flipped through the newspaper and pointed out a bigger story, "Hermione Granger--A Death Eater and a Malfoy?"

"Well?" Draco asked her, grabbing her hand, "are you going to read it to us or what?"

"Alright, alright: _In this article, we have two exclusive interviews--from Harry Potter and Cho Chang. DP: So Cho, tell us what happened to you on the night of the war. CC: Well, it was a really chaotic night, of course, so I didn't even notice at first that Hermione Granger was fighting with the Death Eaters.. until she started fighting _me_. I was fighting her with Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott, and she killed both of them quickly. Before she could kill me though, Kingsley Shacklebolt jumped in to try and help, so Hermione stunned me--to deal with me after, I guess. She must have forgotten about it after she killed Kingsley because when I came to, Kingsley's body was next to me, and the Death Eaters were all gone. DP: Can you tell me your reaction to Hermione Granger of all people becoming a Death Eater? CC: I was shocked, obviously, because she had been so close to Harry during school, but she always seemed a little off to me, so I don't know. I guess you never really know what people are thinking. DP: What is your opinion on the fact that Hermione Granger remains one of the Death Eaters still on the run? CC: It's terrible. She killed so many people during the war, and she was a traitor. I owe my life to Kingsley Shacklebolt and she killed him--in my opinion she should be the Death Eater who gets the worst punishment. She can't get away with this, she just can't. DP: Thank you for your time, Cho. Next is our interview with Harry Potter himself, about his friendship with Hermione Granger during school and what he thinks caused her deflection to the Death Eaters. Hello Harry, it's very nice to meet you. Let's get right down to business. Tell me about your friendship with Hermione Granger. HP: Well, we met at Hogwarts in our first year, and we became friends, along with Ron Weasley. We were inseparable but over the years we started to grow apart. After school ended, she became really angry all the time, and then she started 'going on trips' a lot. We were suspicious, but not enough that we really looked into it much. We figured it all out when we sent Ginny Weasley to the Death Eaters to have her 'join them' and become a spy. Long story short, when she saw Hermione there…she told us as quickly as she could. DP: This is the first time a lot of us are hearing about this, and about the inner workings of the Order. Would you say that Hermione's sudden turn to the Dark side was caused by something you or someone else did? HP: -pause- No, I wouldn't say so. I guess I don't really know though, and if I ever see her, I don't think that I'll be giving her the time to explain. She killed my best friend and my girlfriend. DP: Well Harry, I think we have time for one more question.. what are these rumors we're hearing about Hermione Granger now being Hermione Malfoy? HP: Yes, she married him soon after we discovered she was a spy. DP: Thank you so much for being here today and telling us your story. If you see Hermione Granger, call the Auror Department of the Ministry of Magic _immediately_. She is credited with the deaths of Ginevra Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Molly Weasley, Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, as well as many others. She is number two on the list of Most Wanted Death Eaters._ I can't believe I forgot to kill that dumb bitch," Hermione groaned, "that is going to bother me."

"It is news all the same," Lucius told her, "the Wizarding world will not forget. Slowly though, the articles, the hysteria.. it will die down. And that is when we will rise again. Our losses were tragic, but we have still have the power to take over. We will rise from the ashes, and when we do--we must kill Harry Potter first. But not yet…for now, we must wait." Draco squeezed Hermione's hand and they shared a look. This was far from over--they weren't giving up yet.

* * *

**Author's Note: **And that's it! I know. Short epi, and it's not that great either, but I like sort of leaving it hanging. I'm pretty sure there won't be a sequel, but keep your eyes out just in case I change my mind. It's been great, y'all. If you've never reviewed, do so.. means a looottt. (: And for all of you that always review, I _love_ you!! Time to reply to the reviews:

**Star-Of-Hearts: **Yeah, it's been a while, I understand that you had to go back. (: Usually when I start a chapter I even have to reread to remember what's happening..

**SnowCharms: **Haha, yeah. Guess I could have made her death more painful...ahah.

**Rebecca:** I really didn't feel like writing out your account name thing. It's so long and such. Anyways. Yeah. Midterms were sort of like the death of me. Oh well. Yeah, no sequel. (: I decided.

**D.M. Lover 21: **Yeah, it probably looked like I forgot about it. :/ ahah. But no! (:

And thanks to **ness171990**, **PyroAngel8605**, **vampiregirl292**, **LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL** and **voldyismyfather** (as well as everyone who has reviewed ever!) for reviewing. I love love love you! (:


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